tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79862281826327155522018-03-06T02:50:17.125+03:00The Kurdish ObserverKurdish Observer is interested in security, political, economic and cultural developments in Iraq as well as the Kurd world.Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.comBlogger176125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-76820662669104020502015-02-15T12:55:00.003+03:002015-02-15T12:55:30.599+03:00Will the US Continue Handling the Kurdish Aspirations the Hammering Way? <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">I wrote this article originally for BasNews, <a href="http://basnews.com/en/opinion/2015/02/14/will-the-us-handle-kurdish-concerns-the-hammering-way/">here is the link to the article.</a></span><br /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Erbil - Kurds greatly appreciate the airstrikes by the US and coalition warplanes against the extremist group Islamic State. The strikes have played a key role in the Kurdish pushback to recapture areas they lost to the group also known as IS, ISIL and ISIS. But they have also been complaining recently that the US promised delivery of heavy weapons of which few have made their way into the Kurdistan Region that has become the forefront of the fight against ISIS while at the same time a bastion of peace for refugees as well as internally displaced people from other parts of Iraq. All this, despite an economic crisis that began last year when the Iraqi government cut off Kurdistan’s share of the Iraqi budget.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">There seems to be one main reason why the US is not so willing to directly arm the Kurds as it is in helping the Iraqi army: the weapons given to Kurds could be used later for Kurdish independence against Baghdad, and the US does not want to be blamed for “creating” a Kurdish state in the Middle East only to destabilize the region as the conspiracy theory goes. And while exploiting the weapons for independence may well be the reason why Kurds want the weapons so badly, there are several other reasons why they are losing patience.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">First of all, they are losing many lives on the battlefield (over 1000 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have been killed) against IS because of a lack of sufficient military equipment as simple as body armor, helmets, and night vision, let alone heavy weapons they need to counterbalance the large number of heavy weaponry IS took (estimated at 1,700 pieces including tanks, Humvees, MRAPs, artillery, etc) from the three Iraqi army divisions that ran away in the face of an IS offensive in June last year. Not a single day of foggy weather passes easily in Kurdistan without thousands of families struggling to go to sleep because of fear of a possible large scale, surprise attack by IS who use suicide fighters with explosive vests, as well as car bombs which they have learned to armor in a way that only planes, or direct hits from a tank or other heavy weapons like anti-tank MILAN rocket systems, which Peshmerga forces received from Germany, could stop. Members of these families are on the frontline and when it is foggy enough to make IS movement invisible, the planes aren’t able to help, and the tanks and MILANs are few, and also face the same visibility issue in such weathers. The Peshmerga are left to a IS special combo of ferocious man-vehicle bombs who are only too eager to blow themselves, and their bomb-laden cars, up in the middle of a group of Kurdish fighters. Moreover, the US and coalition airstrikes will not be there forever, in which case IS has to be fought and defeated on the ground where heavy weapons are needed.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Second, there’s a strong sense of betrayal among Kurds who never killed Americans, or ever think they will. Yet, the US heavily supports Baghdad where the Shiite dominated government – let alone the Shia militias the Iraqi government supports and arms – don’t like Americans very much, or maybe at all. Some Iraqi Shia officials have also gone so far as accusing the coalition forces of dropping weapons, ammo and military supplies to IS militants.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">And third, when the US spends billions of dollars training the Iraqi army, which has a bloody history in Kurdish memory no matter how hard Baghdad or Washington tries to paint a different picture, and when it tries very hard to keep Iraq united, it is only really frustrating at best – Kurds are fighting ISIS on a nearly 1000 km long frontline and received only 25 MRAPs from the US (of course apart from light weapons and ammo), and insulting at worst, especially to the countless Kurdish families whose loved ones died fighting for independence over the past decades against the Iraqi Army and successive Iraqi governments. So, many Kurds could now ask: Did we fight Iraq for over half a century only to see that our dream of independence, which never before has seemed so within reach, is being rolled back by the US when even some high profile Iraqi leaders, one way or another, have come to terms with the idea?<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder al-Abbadi reportedly said at the Munich Security Conference recently held in Germany that he believed it was up to the Kurds to choose whether or not to stay as part of Iraq. And an Iraqi lawmaker, Mishaan Jubouri, a Sunni who is known for his anti-Kurd comments, told NRT TV – a Kurdish news channel – that he supports Kurdish independence, although he supports a Kurdish state that does not include the oil-rich Kirkuk province, and that his support for a Kurdish state is rooted in his beliefs that Kurds are like cancer in Iraq, that they are working on “weakening Iraq” so they get stronger and that Iraq will only rest when Kurds are no longer part of. Also, Iraqi lawmaker Abdulsalam al-Maliki, a Shia from the former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s party, also known for their anti-Kurds comments, recently called on Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan regional Government (KRG) to hold a referendum to secede from Iraq and “drop their Iraqi citizenship.” Similarly of course, al-Maliki sees the Kurds as a kind of cancer in Iraq and that Iraq can only enjoy peace when Kurds separate. And Ayad Allawi, a secular Shia leader who won the most seats in the parliamentary elections 9 years ago beating Nouri al-Maliki before Maliki forged an alliance in the parliament to claim the largest bloc, is well known for his position regarding a Kurdish state which can be put simply like this: In principle, I support a Kurdish state. Kurds deserve to have their own state; my only concern is that it is not the right time now. All of these voices stand in stark contrast with the nationalist Arab rhetoric of, say, a few decades ago, or even with that of the early years after the US war in Iraq in 2003 when speaking on not only Kurdish independence, but also of a more decentralized Iraq, was a taboo among Sunni and Shia Arab politicians alike.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Besides, the more the US – or any other nation – pushes on Kurds to disown aspirations for independence, the more attractive the idea becomes. Successive Iraqi governments used all types of intimidation from revoking their Iraqi citizenship, expelling, forced resettlement (also true in the case of Syrian Kurds) to clamping down on them militarily, and using chemical weapons against them. Only a total genocide could remove the Kurdish dream of independence altogether. That’s exactly the kind of realization former Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein must have had when he ordered the Anfal Operations – a series of military operations that killed as many as 182,000 Kurds, flattened some 4,000 villages, and forced rural populations into urban settlements to control them, but to no avail.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">It is simple. You can’t impose on Kurds (or almost any people) what they don’t want, and history supports this claim. Kurds are known for their stubbornness, and perhaps it is only this stubbornness that has kept the people as distinct from other neighboring peoples as they can be despite decades of harsh assimilation policies by the Middle Eastern countries. The word “stubborn” in Kurdish is a compound word that, when translated word for word, becomes “hard-skulled” in English. Iraqi Arabs have jokes and sayings about this stubbornness of Kurds. And internally, Kurds have different jokes about the degree of “hard-skulledness” of Kurds from different tribes and areas. One joke is roughly as follows: A man was hammering a nail on a wall as hard as he could, but the nail wouldn’t make a dent. When he looked at the other side of the wall, a Khoshnaw (member of a Kurdish tribe of the same name) was leaning against the wall with his head right against the opposite side of where the man was trying to hammer the nail. The lesson: you cannot penetrate Kurdish skulls (i.e. mentality) the hammering (forceful) way, at least not with the dream of independence.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">More important than US officials realizing that when Kurds talk about independence there’s nothing that can dissuade them to keep Iraq together, is realizing that the US should not worry about the outcome of arming the Kurds. Because, the weapons will never be used against the US and American people unlike what has happened in other places where the US supported certain groups with weapons: for example in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq’s non-Kurdish parts (a lot of the weapons given to Iraq end up in pro-Iranian Shia militia hands who see no difference between the US and IS – remember the comment by Iraqi MPs that US drops weapons for IS). Also, it would be false to say that in the event of an emerging Kurdish state – that the US “carved out” a Kurdish state from Arab, Turkish, or Persian lands, like the WWII superpowers are accused of “creating” a country for Jews. Unlike the case of Israel, there’s a whole century of armed struggle behind today’s Kurdish aspirations for independence. And what lands Kurds claim are actually overwhelmingly Kurdish-populated lands in addition to some disputed land still with a majority Kurdish population that underwent an Arabization policy under Saddam Hussein, especially around the oil-rich Kirkuk province, plus more and more Iraqi leaders are beginning to realize that they cannot, and should not oppose Kurdish independence. Today or tomorrow, the Kurds will always be pushing for independence. Therefore the US should not treat Kurdish concerns the hammering way.</span><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/VcCIFh7BToQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com0http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2015/02/will-us-continue-handling-kurdish.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-29887285745504786802015-02-04T13:12:00.003+03:002015-02-04T13:13:23.102+03:00Kurdish Peshmarga's death toll hits 999 since ISIS began offensive on Kurdistan last yearErbil - The number of Kurdish Peshmarga fighters who were killed in battles with the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, or ISIL) has hit 999 with another 4596 injured in the fighting that started in August last year.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JhpOtg8Xbcg/VNHwdE3SXkI/AAAAAAAABYc/INgu5FqarQY/s1600/peshmerga.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JhpOtg8Xbcg/VNHwdE3SXkI/AAAAAAAABYc/INgu5FqarQY/s1600/peshmerga.jpg" height="252" width="400" /></a></div><br />Jabar Yawar, spokesman for the KRG Ministry of Peshmarga disclosed the number in a press conference on Wednesday following a brutal ISIS attack on the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in an attempt to grab more land and to deal a quick blow to the Peshmarga forces to repair its image as the "unstoppable" jihadi force. ISIS had been losing ground on several fronts in Iraq including around their stronghold of Mosul, Kirkuk, Diyala province as well as Anbar.<br /><br />It is not clear how many ISIS militants have been killed by the Peshmarga forces, because they never report on the number of their dead fighters and most of the time they do not leave behind bodies if they can recover them before pulling back. Massoud Barzanin, President of Kurdistan Region has said recently that<a href="http://nrttv.com/home/2015/02/03/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B2%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%DA%98%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1%DB%95%DB%8C-%D9%83%D9%88%DA%98%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4-%D9%84%DB%95-3-%D9%87%DB%95%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%83%DB%95%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%B1-%D9%86%DB%8C%DB%95"> "no less than 3000" have been killed by Peshmarga</a>.<br /><br />ISIS captured territories in Iraq's mainly Sunni Arab populated areas in a lightening fast offensive in June last year after three divisions of the Iraqi Army ran away in the face of the extremist group leaving heavy weaponry in the hands of the extremist group.<br /><br />At first, the group did not appear to be interested in attacking Kurdistan, and Kurdish officials did not want to engage ISIS in the Arab populated areas for fear of igniting an ethnic conflict between Arabs and Kurds. The Sunni Arab population had long been complaining of marginalization by the Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, therefore many Sunnis welcomed ISIS, or did not resist when the Army fled.<br /><br />However, Kurdish Peshmarga forces, who were now filling the gap created by the absence of the Iraqi Army in contested areas between Baghdad and Erbil that Kurds claim to be historically part of Kurdistan and has a mixed population of Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Christians and other minority groups. ISIS began its surprise attack with the newly captured heavy weapons and armored vehicles in August pushing deep &nbsp;into Kurdish territories taking key towns like Sinjar, Zummar, makhmour, Gwer (only 25 km from capital Erbil), and dozens of villages.<br /><br />The Peshmarga fought, as it seemed, a helpless war because what they had was old Russian made AK-47s, BKC machine guns, anti-aircraft machine guns, and RPG rocket propellers which proved ineffective against the armored US-made Humvees and MRAPs and long range artillery, howitzer and mortars. So, they pulled back in what they described tactical retreats to avoid heavy casualties.<br /><br />On August 8 American warplanes began bombing ISIS destroying their armored vehicles and artillery positions. With that, Kurdish forces started to reorganize and put up a better fight as the air support boosted morale.<br /><br />Kurdish forces have been making gains against ISIS ever since, especially after they received MILAN anti-tank weapons from Germany. The weapons system has proved to be very effective against ISIS armored vehicles, and especially against ISIS suicide car bombs which they also armor so nothing can stop them.<br /><br /><a href="http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/0402201510">http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/0402201510</a><br /><br /><a href="http://nrttv.com/home/2015/02/03/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B2%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%DA%98%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1%DB%95%DB%8C-%D9%83%D9%88%DA%98%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4-%D9%84%DB%95-3-%D9%87%DB%95%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%83%DB%95%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%B1-%D9%86%DB%8C%DB%95">http://nrttv.com/home/2015/02/03/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B2%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%DA%98%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1%DB%95%DB%8C-%D9%83%D9%88%DA%98%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4-%D9%84%DB%95-3-%D9%87%DB%95%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%83%DB%95%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%B1-%D9%86%DB%8C%DB%95</a><br /><br /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/WD5gzG-jmoA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com0http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2015/02/kurdish-peshmargas-death-toll-hits-999.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-52635335883338515862015-01-30T16:36:00.000+03:002015-01-30T16:46:51.412+03:00ISIS launches large scale offensive on Peshmarga forces, mostly repelledErbil - Islamic State (IS) militants also known by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL launched a massive operation in the early hours of Friday morning taking advantage of foggy weather to push into the lines of the Kurdish Peshmarga forces on mainly all fronts stretching from Kirkuk province from the east to the Nineveh province in the west of Iraq, but were mostly repelled by the Peshmarga with dozens of ISIS militants dead and more injured.<br /><br /><ul><li><b>27 Peshmarga died in the fight, among them popular commander</b></li><li><b>Between 60-100 ISIS militants were killed and many more injured</b></li><li><b>ISIS used suicide car bombs and militants with explosive vests</b></li><li><b>Initially ISIS made advances, but were repelled later</b></li></ul><br /><b>Attacks in Kirkuk</b><br /><br />It appeared that most of the attacks in Khazir and Makhmour areas, south west of the capital Erbil, were a decoy to distract the Peshmarga forces while they launched the most vicious offensive on the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Initially, ISIS militants were able to advance and take several villages from the Peshmarga including Maryam Beg, Mala Abdullah, Nahrawan, Maktab Khaled and Talward.<br /><br />Then ISIS suicide militants that appeared to have either infiltrated into Kirkuk, or been ISIS sleeper cells in the city, blew up a car bomb at the entrance of a multi-storey, large building that is close to other security facilities, followed by 3-4 militants with explosive vests storming the building. Shortly afterwards the Kurdish security forces in the city claimed retaking the building after raiding it, killing all the militants inside, with one of them blowing himself up.<br /><br />Video footage on Rudaw TV showed local civilian Kurds taking up arms to join the fight when they heard the explosion and gunfire. Moments later Kurdish security men appeared on top of the building firing celebratory gunshots into the air for clearing the building. Six security personnel were injured in the fight.<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1QMYsLDy444" width="560"></iframe> <span style="font-size: x-small;">The building shows a lot of smoke after one suicide bomber blew himself up inside when security forces raided the building. Civilians appear in the footage who took up arms after they heard gunfire. Also Kurdish security forces appear on top of the building after clearing it.</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>Around Kirkuk where the fog had disappeared and it was clear daylight now, Kurdish Peshmarga forces aided by an Iraqi army brigade made up of Kurds went on the offensive to recapture most of the areas ISIS had taken. Reports said only Mala Abdullah village was still under ISIS control and fighting was still going on. Video footage and photos showed what appeared to be a pile of bodies of ISIS militants killed in the counteroffensive.<br /><br />A security source said the mastermind and commander of today's attacks on Kirkuk was a man called Abu Hassan Turki who was killed in the counterattacks on ISIS.<br /><br />There were different reports about the casualties in the ranks of ISIS with some putting the number of militants killed at 60 and around 80 more being wounded. What appeared in a video footage by Gali Kurdistan TV of the battlefields around one village showed about a couple dozen. The death of at least 17 Peshmarga personnel has also been confirmed with some 160 others wounded. One of the fallen Peshmarga was the beloved commander Sherko Fateh Shwani.<br /><br />Separately, seven Peshmarga were killed near Jalawla in Diyala province when a militant blew his car bomb up.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jmqEtAXXqVY" width="560"></iframe> <br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Video: bodies of some of the ISIS militants killed in Maryam Beg village. One of the Peshmarga&nbsp;fighters&nbsp;says 11 of the dead&nbsp;Chechen fighters [Peshmarga fighters refer to Caucasian fighters as Chechen].</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x6S_geFtly8" width="560"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sherko Fateh Shwani before he was killed by ISIS mortar fire said he would never allow ISIS to get near Kirkuk even if it means laying down his life.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_3phc1y513k/VMuCk2IOQHI/AAAAAAAABXI/PFK2JHdh6Vg/s1600/ISIS%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_3phc1y513k/VMuCk2IOQHI/AAAAAAAABXI/PFK2JHdh6Vg/s1600/ISIS%2B1.jpg" height="400" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy of Wishe Newspaper www.Wishe.net&nbsp;</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qlyBW4vt3wg/VMuCk5abYyI/AAAAAAAABXM/9MO4jT0xVng/s1600/ISIS%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qlyBW4vt3wg/VMuCk5abYyI/AAAAAAAABXM/9MO4jT0xVng/s1600/ISIS%2B2.jpg" height="400" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Courtesy of Wishe Newspaper www.Wishe.net</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IRQYVJKW9cY/VMuCk3iCnDI/AAAAAAAABXY/zPYJTsUn_Ig/s1600/ISIS%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IRQYVJKW9cY/VMuCk3iCnDI/AAAAAAAABXY/zPYJTsUn_Ig/s1600/ISIS%2B3.jpg" height="400" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Courtesy of Wishe Newspaper www.Wishe.net</td></tr></tbody></table><b></b><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b><b style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Attacks in Erbil</b></b></div><b></b></td></tr></tbody></table>In Erbil's southern Makhmour town, and Khazir area to the west, ISIS attacked Peshmarga positions simultaneously but were soon repelled. The militants did not make any advance here as they appeared to be smaller in number and served as a decoy for the ultimate trophy: Kirkuk.<br /><br />Four Peshmarga were killed in the attack and 10 others were wounded. &nbsp;The bodies of at least 3 militants were recovered by the Peshmarga although officials say more were killed by the Kurdish fighters.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HkSTVRO-rCY/VMuA303gV2I/AAAAAAAABW8/zJgtEl7aV7c/s1600/ISIS%2BMakhmour.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HkSTVRO-rCY/VMuA303gV2I/AAAAAAAABW8/zJgtEl7aV7c/s1600/ISIS%2BMakhmour.jpg" height="443" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;">ISIS militants killed during their attack on the Peshmarga positions in Makhmour town.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><b>ISIS attack in Mosul</b><br /><br />Similarly, ISIS launched an offensive on the Peshmarga forces to the west of Mosul around Aski Mosul, which is a strategic point that connects Mosul to other towns like Talafar and Shingal (Sinjar), but were repelled by the Kurdish fighters. Again, there were different reports about ISIS casualties with one source putting the number at 17 dead and one suicide car bomb also being taken out before it rammed into the ranks of Peshmarga fighters. Another source said around 40 ISIS militants were killed and many more were injured. No Peshmarga casualties were reported in this area.<br /><br />In most of the attacks ISIS used car bombs and suicide fighters with explosive belts to penetrate the Kurdish lines, according &nbsp;to the reports.<br /><br />Today's attacks appear to have come as retaliation for the heavy losses the group had to take in western Mosul after Peshmarga forces killed about 200 ISIS militants and captured a 600 square kilometer area on January 21-22, getting so close to Mosul that they were able to fire grad missiles at ISIS positions inside Mosul city causing panic in their ranks. Perhaps that's why they released a video showing the beheading of a Kuridsh Peshmarga prisoner after delivering threatening messages to US president Barack Obama, France, Belgium and Massoud Barzani, President of Kurdistan Region.<br /><br />And, they seem desperate for a some victory that retains their image as an unstoppable force, an image they have been actively using as a recruitment tool.<br /><br /><a href="http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/300120151">http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/300120151</a><br /><a href="http://www.kurdiu.org/details.php?section=hawal&amp;lang=1&amp;type=1&amp;id=26462">http://www.kurdiu.org/details.php?section=hawal&amp;lang=1&amp;type=1&amp;id=26462</a><br /><a href="http://www.kurdiu.org/details.php?section=hawal&amp;lang=1&amp;type=1&amp;id=26461">http://www.kurdiu.org/details.php?section=hawal&amp;lang=1&amp;type=1&amp;id=26461</a><br /><a href="http://wishe.net/dreja.aspx?=hewal&amp;jmare=10979&amp;Jor=1">http://wishe.net/dreja.aspx?=hewal&amp;jmare=10979&amp;Jor=1</a><br /><a href="http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/3001201524">http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/3001201524</a><br /><a href="http://www.kurdiu.org/details.php?section=hawal&amp;lang=1&amp;type=1&amp;id=26455">http://www.kurdiu.org/details.php?section=hawal&amp;lang=1&amp;type=1&amp;id=26455</a><br /><br /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/giVsV6j7Zj0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com0http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2015/01/erbil-islamic-state-is-militants-also.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-66040972298932444792015-01-27T23:06:00.003+03:002015-01-30T00:54:03.086+03:00Release of pro-Jihadi Kurdish Cleric by Norway elicits mixed reactions in Kurdistan<div class="MsoNormal">Erbil – On January 25<sup>th</sup>, Mala Krekar or Najmaddin Faraj if we go by his real name, a former Islamist-Jihadi from Kurdistan whose group of fighters was in a bloody conflict with the more secular groups before he fled to Norway in early 2000s, was released by Norwegian authorities after completing a 34 month jail term.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The news of Krekar's release traveled fast back to Kurdistan and with it came a whirlwind of mixed reactions from the different political parties of the region: both joyful and threatening ones. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sccoLWhsUmw/VMfuZkvMqqI/AAAAAAAABWs/7Nbsge6lbGU/s1600/krekar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sccoLWhsUmw/VMfuZkvMqqI/AAAAAAAABWs/7Nbsge6lbGU/s1600/krekar.jpg" height="247" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>The welcome-home kind of reactions<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br /></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Islamic groups were quick to welcome the news including the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) which is known as a peaceful, anti-violence Islamic party in Kurdistan, Komal (or the Islamic Group) another Islamic group that is seen a degree less moderate than the former, but still a civilian group taking part in the political game in Kurdistan, and the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (IMK) which is the most conservative of all the Islamic parties in the region and is also like the mother group among whose ranks Mr. Krekar was an active leader before the group broke up after which he established his own called Ansarul Islam.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The KIU‘s Politburo member Omar Mohammed said: “We hope that he benefited from his imprisonment, that he looks at it as a life experience, so he can better serve" it is not clear what he meant by "better serve" or whom and what to serve as most of the time Krekar was the IMK, or when he had his own group, he was in conflict with the Kurdish parties militarily.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">He continued, “His fault was that the way he thought and preached was to a great extent harsh, especially when he was with Ansarul Islam. We hope that Mamosta [in reference to Krekar, the word in Kurdish means teacher, but is used for a spiritual leader, a religious leader, or any person of great abilities, a master] can use his abilities in literature, rhetoric and influencing [others] to better serve.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">IMK said Krekar was a fellow citizen and had the right to return to Kurdistan. Abdullah Warty, a member of the IMK leadership said “a new page should be opened with people like him.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Komal was probably the happiest of all the Islamic groups with Mohammed Hakeem, Komal spokesman, saying “in case he returns [to Kurdistan] and decides to work in our ranks, we will be happy to accept him.” Komal was also an armed group once that was established after the break-up of IMK. Their militants were subjected to disarmament after the 2003 war on Iraq with US warplanes and rockets destroying their bases in Sulaymaniyah province. They are now engaged in the political process in Kurdistan with a minister in the KRG cabinet. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>You-filthy-terrorist kind of voices<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br /></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">The most vehemently opposing faction on the ground is the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a secular social democrat party whose Peshmarga militia was in a bloody conflict with Mala Krekar’s group before he fled the country to Norway in 2002.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Ata Sarawi a leader with PUK, and brother of one of the Peshmargas killed by Ansarul Islam militants when they were at war with the PUK, said “No party should dare welcome him back. We are going to treat him like a Daesh (the Arabic acronym for ISIS or ISIL, which is now known as Islamic State or IS). We will not be silent, neither as PUK, nor as the families of the Kheli Hama martyrs, about anyone who brings a man killer into this country” referring to the death of 43 PUK Peshmargas in one surprise attack by Ansarul Islam in 2001. The men were brutally killed with many of them by beheading. Later PUK said the bodies of most of the fallen Peshmargas were also disfigured by Ansarul Islam.<br /><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Sarawi said all of the families of the Kheli Hama massacre were ready to file lawsuits against Krekar as soon as he sets foot on Kurdish ground.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Another PUK official, Lateef Sheikh Omar, says “If Mala Krekar, or anybody else, is involved in a lawsuit, they will have to be immediately handed over to the security forces and sent to court... The court will decide, with political consensus. It is not up to anybody, or and party, to grant him forgiveness. This is PUK’s principle”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>So is he a dangerous man to return to Kurdistan? <o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white;">Well, you should first read something about the latest developments in Kurdistan. Calm and prosperity was disrupted in August last year when ISIS militants turned their barrels on Kurdistan following a lightning fast land grab in the northern and western parts of Iraq’s mainly Sunni populated areas.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Since then, over 800 Kurdish soldiers have died in the battle pushing back ISIS from the territories they took in the first attack. In the ranks of the ISIS fighters were hundreds of foreigners lured by Jihadi ideology, but also around a couple hundred Kurds from Kurdistan Region itself. This group of young Islamists were radicalized either in mosques by hard-line preachers (and patterns show they mainly came from areas where Krekar had influence before going to Norway), or online. Now the security forces claim that the number of Jihadists from Kurdistan who joined ISIS could be a lot higher. And in the latest video released by ISIS, a Kurdish-speaking fighter dressed in Kurdish clothes beheaded a captured Peshmarga fighter after he delivered threatening messages to US President Barack Obama, France, Belgium, as well as the Kurdish President Massoud Barzani.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Now, ISIS may not be that big a threat to Kurdistan as it appeared to be last year. Peshmarga forces are gaining ground against the Jihadists ever since the US-coalition airplanes started bombing ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Last week Peshmarga forces pushed deep into ISIS held territories recapturing some 600 square kilometers in an operation west of Mosul (the ISIS stronghold in Iraq) in which ISIS sent about 14 suicide car bombers to break the lines of the Kurdish solders all of which were taken out either by the coalition warplanes or the Peshmarga who used their newly received MILAN anti-tank rockets from Germany with brutal effectiveness. Officials said over 200 ISIS militants had been killed in the operation, and they said that they were so close to Mosul now that they could shell the center of Mosul with artillery fire - and had actually done so to destroy ISIS positions before Barzani ordered the Peshmarga to stop shelling ISIS positions in Mosul for fear of civilian casualties and that ISIS could use that as a propaganda tool arguing Peshmarga are targeting civilian populations, attracting more recruits from the city.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='600' height='320' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxoS7lngT81Jg6tMbtRjpvDI1ZTrTI-vWOPHm4Zd6640GqYbRAuV1-mCr9-JYsA2-7cXHzuFZzwgHjH033kng' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In this video, Kurdish Peshmarga Forces blow up ISIS suicide bombers, and destroy ISIS armored vehicles with their new anti-tank weapons.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The real deal is that there are hundreds of Kurdish militants in the ranks of ISIS, and there may be hundreds more inside Kurdistan Region who all look up to Mala Krekar, and his return to Kurdistan in addition to some influential Jihadi speeches, could encourage many pro-Jihadi young men, and awaken a sleeping generation of Jihadi-minded fellas inside Kurdistan.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">According to Kurdish media outlets, ISIS had posted a message on social media pages "welcoming back Mala Krekar" but refrained from commenting on what the group thought about Krekar before he opens his mouth. "We are not going to say anything before he speaks and we find out what he thinks about the Caliphate and the US-Peshmarga alliance"</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Mala Krekar is known to have said he is against the idea of young Kurds joining the war in Syria to wage Jihad. "It is better for them to stay in Kurdistan and learn Islamic sciences" his brother once quoted him as saying. He has also claimed that Krekar supports the creation of a Kurdish state.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">As for the question: Is he going to return to Kurdistan or stay in Norway? it is not clear what his plans are yet.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><ol><li><a href="http://hawlati.co/%D8%A6%DB%95%D8%B1%D8%B4%DB%8C%DA%A4%DB%95%DA%A9%D8%A7%D9%86/23456"><span lang="EN">http://hawlati.co/%D8%A6%DB%95%D8%B1%D8%B4%DB%8C%DA%A4%DB%95%DA%A9%D8%A7%D9%86/23456</span></a></li><li><a href="http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/270120152"><span lang="EN">http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/270120152</span></a></li><li><a href="http://basnews.com/news/2015/01/25/%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%95%D9%83-%D9%84%DB%95-%D9%85%DB%95%D9%84%D8%A7-%D9%83%D8%B1%DB%8E%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%AF%DB%95%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%AA/"><span lang="EN">http://basnews.com/news/2015/01/25/%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%95%D9%83-%D9%84%DB%95-%D9%85%DB%95%D9%84%D8%A7-%D9%83%D8%B1%DB%8E%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%AF%DB%95%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%AA/</span></a></li><li><a href="http://wishe.net/dreja.aspx?Jmare=114&amp;Jor=5">http://wishe.net/dreja.aspx?Jmare=114&amp;Jor=5</a></li><li><span lang="EN"><a href="http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/2501201543">http://rudaw.net/sorani/kurdistan/2501201543</a></span></li></ol></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/QNbm_3nJkg8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com0http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2015/01/release-of-pro-jihadi-kurdish-cleric-by.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-55257516150798076132015-01-24T00:34:00.006+03:002015-01-24T11:27:10.315+03:00Video of Peshmarga forces taking out ISIS suicide car bombsErbil - A new video released yesterday by Kurdistan Region's Ministry of Peshmarga shows how Kurdish Peshmarga forces take out Islamic State (also known as ISIS and ISIL) suicide car bombs.<br /><br />Kurdish forces launched a major offensive on January 21-22 west of &nbsp;ISIS stronghold of Mosul, inflicting the heaviest defeat on the group since they took territories in Iraq and pushed deep into Kurdish territories last year.<br /><br />Kurdish forces said they had retaken some 600 square kilometers which included two townships and a handful villages. Fighting continued into Friday. Most important of all is the capture of an area that looks on the road which links Mosul to Talafar (a major town and ISIS stronghold), Shingal (also know as Sinjar) and Syria, cutting off route for resupply.<br /><br />The release of the video is the second of its kind that directly show ISIS elements destroyed by Peshmarga. Another was released earlier this month by Kurdistan TV that showed how the Kurdish forces chased and killed ISIS militants in a retaliatory operation following the ISIS surprise attack on the town of Gwer where 24 Kurdish soldiers died.<br /><br />In this video, Peshmarga forces appear to have armored US made Humvees they either acquired when the Iraqi Army fled Mosul, or captured from ISIS. They also have some tanks - at least two tanks that appear to be Russian made T-55s appear in the video.<br /><br />Peshmarga officials said the bodies of at least 200 ISIS militants were found on the battlefields. They also said ISIS sent 14 suicide car bombs to break into the lines of the Peshmarga forces of which 3 were destroyed by the coalition planes and the rest taken out by the Peshmarga forces who now use their newly received anti-tank weapons with brutal effectiveness.<br /><br />In the video, at least 3 suicide car bombs trying to ram into the ranks of the Peshmarga forces are blown up by the Peshmarga with German made MILAN anti-tanks.<br /><br />One armored vehicle that advances on Peshmarga forces is struck with two rockets. Two militants are seen abandoning their vehicle, trying to escape. Then, another armored vehicle approaches to help the two militants but the Peshmarga blow it up with a MILAN rocket.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='600' height='320' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dx1rh4JHGQh-XuW8eXP0DSzH1i-HIo1gc74IwWBkULdvCsyMJ6bd_qNVVqc7B3IDffKT6rrYibxw67p6OqvVw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><br /><br /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/jdOjXzK1NFU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com0http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2015/01/video-of-peshmarga-forces-taking-out.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-50016804379152456242015-01-07T16:18:00.000+03:002015-01-07T16:18:04.154+03:00What takes my timeIt has been quite a while since I last posted an article on this blog. I am in love with this blog, because it is the first I started, it archives my works, and has a good readership throughout the world, and finally it helps me keep busy.<br /><br />But there's been a lot going on lately which kept me away for quite some time. First of all, I quit my job as a journalist. Second, I went to the US for my graduate studies in English and Communication. Third, I have been working an average of 10 hours per day since I returned from the US early 2014, and more recently I have involved in literary writing more than commentary and analysis. I am currently working on a book. Creative nonfiction, also I am working on another blog trying to introduce Kurdish literature to the world. my new blog is <a href="http://www.kurdishbookshelf.blogspot.com/">www.kurdishbookshelf.blogspot.com</a><br /><br />but that does not mean I am quitting this blog. I want to keep working on this blog, I just need some time to take care of some other distractions and come back with a clear mind. meanwhile, if you have any appetite for learning about Kurdish literature, you can follow me on my new blog which I have just started.<br /><br /><br /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/2IAkG4Ys-DU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com0http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2015/01/what-takes-my-time.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-61530716911592004812014-09-04T13:18:00.001+03:002014-09-05T01:23:51.630+03:00Interfaith marriage shows how sectarian divide in Iraq is unprecedented<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">There are many gauges to determine why the current sectarian divide between Sunnis and Shias in Iraq is&nbsp;unprecedented,&nbsp;but one of them strikes me and makes this pretty clear: the record low intermarriage between Shias and Sunnis.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">If some 50 years ago an Iraqi Sunni and Shia couple - whether Kurd, Arab, or Turkmen - decided to get married, nobody would have even known that it was an intermarriage between the two sects. This is because it was totally normal and such occasions.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Today, however, these rare occasions, like the recent marriage of a Sunni girl to a Shia man, seem to make headlines as an act of bravery, interfaith tolerance, and patriotism as well.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><br></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Mohammed Hares Yousef (25) and his bride Reem (20) both were among the&nbsp;families&nbsp;who fled the northern city of&nbsp;Mosul after it fell to the militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) - &nbsp;now known as only Islamic State or IS - in a&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">lightening fast offensive that routed Iraqi Army in June.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The couple got married in a&nbsp;ceremony&nbsp;in Baghdad's al-Saeedea neighborhood on Monday.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">According to the reprots, and Iraqi MP Ahlam al-Husseini also attended the wedding ceremony.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The story made headlines across not only Iraqi media, but also Arab countries as "Shia man and Sunni woman challenge ISIS with their marriage in Baghdad". Arab media outlets also wrote that with the intermarriage the couple wanted to "stand in the face of the violence that threatens to tear Iraq apart"</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">"... I challenge&nbsp;sorrow, I challenge terrorism.." they quote the young groom as saying.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br></div><br><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">I know this is supposed to be a good sign that Iraqis are fighting sectarianism, but I am afraid it can be seen in more than one way. I believe it means the divide between Sunni and Shias is beyond bridging with all the fighting and bloodshed going on in the country since 2003.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The tensions between Sunnis and Shia in Iraq started when the Baath regime held power in Iraq and it peaked under Saddam Hussein in the 1980 when he banned Shia religious rites in public and started to jail Shia leaders. Shia soldiers rebelled against the Iraqi Army in 1991 after Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of Kuwait and much of the army was damaged by the coalition forces in the first Gulf War. Saddam Hussein clamped down on the Shia with an iron fist.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">But even then intermarriage was a lot more common than the years after 2003. According to unofficial figures from a judge from Baghdad in an<a href="http://www.zawaj.com/tag/interfaith-marriage/"> article published in 2009</a>, with the title:&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Life Goes On: Mixed Sunni-Shi’ah Marriages in Iraq</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">&nbsp;roughly 50% of marriages in Baghdad before 2003 that the judge signed on were intermarriages.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The judge says that an estimated 40 percent from that figure&nbsp;dropped</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">&nbsp;with the 2003 war that toppled Saddam which still left a good percentage of intermarriages. But why do intermarriages make headlines these days? I believe because they have dropped even more dramatically since the 2009 article, and that's exactly why they make headlines.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HXHoq3zZ4Io/VAg55ByUe5I/AAAAAAAABUg/Fr5ro0RQs1Y/s1600/61051649.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HXHoq3zZ4Io/VAg55ByUe5I/AAAAAAAABUg/Fr5ro0RQs1Y/s1600/61051649.jpg" height="436" width="640"></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vk5ywyzkUKM/VAg54yydZ5I/AAAAAAAABUk/4BaX7_dSy2s/s1600/881.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vk5ywyzkUKM/VAg54yydZ5I/AAAAAAAABUk/4BaX7_dSy2s/s1600/881.jpg" height="352" width="640"></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GYGKarK7GBs/VAg52PmAorI/AAAAAAAABUY/s90L8UOEdHA/s1600/342.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GYGKarK7GBs/VAg52PmAorI/AAAAAAAABUY/s90L8UOEdHA/s1600/342.jpg" height="352" width="640"></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Some of the online media outlets that ran the story from Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, UAE, Saudi Arabia, &nbsp;as well as USA and UK based Arabic&nbsp;language&nbsp;media outlets:</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ol><li><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">http://www.afakmasria.com/vglcxpqo.2bq0025acsa82.,.html</span></li><li><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">http://www.albayan.ae/one-world/arabs/2014-09-03-1.2194538</span></li><li><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">http://arabic.cnn.com/middleeast/2014/09/03/arabic-papers</span></li><li><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">http://www.ishtartv.com/viewarticle,55914.html</span></li><li><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">http://alkhabarpress.com/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1-%D8%AD%D9%81%D9%84-%D8%B2%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%81-%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D8%B4%D9%8A%D8%B9%D9%8A-%D9%88%D9%81%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A/</span></li><li><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">http://xendan.org/dreja.aspx?=hewal&amp;jmara=6875&amp;Jor=2</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">http://www.alweeam.com.sa/289028/%D8%B4%D9%8A%D8%B9%D9%8A-%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%8A%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4-%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%AA%D8%B2%D9%88%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%81%D9%8A/</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">http://www.alarab.co.uk/?id=32157</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">http://shabwaahpress.net/news/19954/</span></li></ol><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/bJDnlbJDWzw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com2http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2014/09/interfaith-marriage-shows-how-sectarian.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-82737145275912702542013-11-19T03:59:00.000+03:002013-11-19T03:59:43.647+03:00Friendly relations and then some<h1 class="entry-title" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #ea7201; font-family: 'arial black', sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="color: #5c5c5c; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">This Article was originally published by Kurdistan Tribune. Here is the <a href="http://kurdistantribune.com/2013/friendly-relations-then-some/">Link</a>. </em><em style="color: #5c5c5c; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;">&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/RaberYAziz" style="color: #ea7201; outline: none;">@RaberYAziz</a></em></h1><div><br /></div><div class="entry-content" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #5c5c5c; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I was a junior undergrad student in 2007 when a journalist from a Dutch radio station who worked on a report about Kurds and Kurdistan asked me as a Kurd what I thought about an independent Kurdish state. My answer was as follows: having a Kurdish state without the blessings of the neighboring countries, even if the whole world recognizes it, is like sitting in a room with no windows, doors or exits. That Kurdistan – and I mean both the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and the greater Kurdistan as well – is a landlocked enclave and all of its interactions and trade with the outside world had to be either through airspaces, or across the soils of Turkey, Syria, Iraq or Iran. I told the journalist that an independent Kurdish state was the dream of every Kurd. However, I didn’t want us to rush into a declaration of independence without first building friendly relations with the neighboring nations through mutual understanding and interests.<br /><br /><span id="more-16285"></span>&nbsp;For a long time after the Kurdistan Region gained self-rule in northern Iraq, the neighboring countries were not happy with this. They all tried to meddle in its internal affairs, and maybe still do. Saddam Hussein was a permanent threat and there was the Turkish military’s continued transgression on its soil ostensibly to attack the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). But, in 2004, Kurdistan Region was officially recognized by the Iraqi Constitution which made it irreversible. Saddam Hussein was gone, but Turkish officials still referred to Kurdistan as “Northern Iraq” and continued denying a Kurdistan Region and the Kurdish identity.<br /><br />With the Justice and Development Party (AKP) coming to power in Turkey, that Turkish attitude changed too. Kurdish classes are now offered and a state-run Kurdish language TV is operational, Recep Teyyip Erdogan has tried to introduce more reforms, which are not huge but better than nothing. And Turkey is a major trade partner of the Kurdistan Region today. Erdogan officially invited the President of the Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barzani, to Diyarbakir, the largest predominantly Kurdish city in Turkey, where they spoke about friendly relations and “Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood.”<br /><br />It was a historical moment to see Barzani in Diyarbakir. No one should deny that – not even those who looked at the intertwined politics that Barzani needed Erdogan’s support in his own ambitions to push oil deals with the neighboring country without going back to Baghdad, or that Erdogan needed Barzani to gain votes from the Kurdish southeast of the country as parliamentary elections are expected to be held in March. Barzani was received by Erdogan as more than just an ally to his AKP party in the Middle East. He was received as an equal counterpart and that has its significance.<br /><br />Also, Erdogan for the first time referred to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as “Iraqi Kurdistan” which I am not suggesting, as some enthusiasts have suggested, it is a sign that Kurdistan is on the right track towards becoming a fully independent country. Rather, the denial policy practiced by the Turkish governments in the past is gradually vanishing and friendly relations are becoming stronger and stronger. It is for that very reason that Turkish hardline nationalists now call Erdogan a traitor. Some have gone so far as accusing Erdogan of splitting Turkey and helping Kurds establish the Greater Kurdistan.<br /><br />After six years, I still hold the same view that an independent Kurdistan, without friendly relations with its neighbors, is unimaginable because Kurdistan is surrounded by those countries that can literally impose sanctions on it and cut it off from the rest of the world if they so wished. However, I would like to add one more line to it now: besides friendly relations with neighboring countries, Kurdish leaders and their fans need to overcome their own denial attitudes towards other Kurdish leaders, parties and factions.<br /><br />In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Erbil is recognized by its leaders as the capital of the Kurdistan Region, and of the greater Kurdistan. In Turkey’s Kurdistan, and in particular by the PKK and its sympathizers, Diyarbakir is. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Iraq describes Barzani as the supreme leader of the Kurdish nation, PKK and its sympathizers give Abdullah Ocalan the same titles, while many Iranian Kurds constantly refer to Qasemlu, leader of the KDP-Iran who was assassinated by Iranian intelligence in Austria, as the leader of the Kurds despite his being dead.<br /><br />While Barzani’s KDP media, in addition to the Turkish media close to Erdogan’s AKP party, praised both leaders and their friendly relations and achievements, the PKK media, and the PKK sympathizer Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) of Turkey harshly criticized Barzani for refuting the PKK-affiliate Democratic Union Party (PYD)’s recent interim administration in Syria. An object of criticism by the BDP leaders was also the fact that Barzani responded to Erdogan’s call to visit Diyarbakir when hundreds of the city’s sons are still in jail on charges of working with the PKK, while he turned down an invitation from the BDP to participate in the Nawroz (Kurdish New Year) celebrations in Diyarbakir.<br /><br />At the heart of the competition is the Barzani-Ocalan rivalry.<br /><br />Everybody is partly to blame for this rivalry and lack of unity among Kurds. The PYD/PKK accuse Barzani and his KDP party of family rule and having a monopoly of power, politics and trade in Kurdistan, yet they are doing the same in Syria. I know that the PYD is the most popular force on the ground in Syria, and I know that as the first power there it has the right to be the one dominating politics and administration. But they have no excuse for marginalizing all other Kurdish parties that seem to disagree with the PYD, however small – at least not until elections are held to see which party has a popular base and deserves to be called a political party and deserves to be part of the administration and how much power each party should have. The same is true of the KDP and Barzani as well. Barzani has done everything in his power to put pressure on the PYD in Syria, from blocking the border crossings and banning Saleh Muslim, the PYD leader, from entering Kurdistan, to adopting political attitudes that show enmity for the PYD, including refuting the recent interim administration announced by the PYD to carve out a Kurdish region in Syria.<br /><br />One more issue is that, in his recent visit, Barzani failed to consider the frustration it would cause to the BDP/PKK and other independent Kurdish leaders in the country – that they would feel marginalized and excluded. Erdogan and his government did not take PKK and its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan for granted, so why should Barzani do that? Erdogan accepted Ocalan as an interlocutor in the peace process and has been holding talks and striking deals with them, so why shouldn’t Barzani do the same? This is not to suggest that he has never tried to hold talks with Turkey’s Kurdish leaders, rather Barzani – as an iconic Kurdish leader – should try harder to bring all Kurdish leaders together especially in compliance with his own ambitions to become the supreme leader of the Kurds everywhere.<br /><br />The BDP is a popular party and its views should matter a lot to Barzani. It garnered about 2.8 million votes in the Turkish parliamentary elections in 2011, which is more than twice the votes Barzani’s KDP received in the Kurdistan Region elections this year. I am not forgetting the number of Kurdish voters in Kurdistan of Iraq and Turkey and therefore this should not mean that they are more popular than Barzani in the Kurdish world, but it should certainly mean that they are a popular force with massive support and a huge fan base in Turkey and the Kurdish world. This should testify that the BDP leaders should not be taken for granted, nor should the PKK. Just a few days ago 20,000 Kurds marched in Germany calling on the German government to reconsider its ban on the PKK.<br /><br />What angered the Kurdish leaders of Turkey was that Barzani’s visit seemed to send the message that Erdogan and Barzani can bring about peace in the region without going back to the BDP or PKK. This may not have been the intention of Barzani, but it certainly did send this message and this was clear from the BDP and PKK leaders’ reactions.<br /><br />Salahattin Demirtas said that “those who say they went to Diyarbakir to deliver some messages to the Kurdish people should respect the sacrifices of this land (Diyarbakir) they have stepped on. “ He also said, in what appeared to be a response to Barzani’s comment that he wouldn’t be able to go and speak in Turkey some 15 years ago but is now able to do so thanks to Erdogan: “If children and mothers of Diyarbakir had not turned each and every neighborhood of the city into an uprising and resistance field, nobody would be able today to deliver any messages here. Everybody should know on what soil they stand before speaking”<br /><br />Here is why Demirtas and other BDP and PKK leaders are frustrated: Barzani went to Turkey and talked about Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood when the BDP and PKK leaders were sidelined, when the BDP/PKK still strongly disapprove of Erdogan’s reform packages and are highly dissatisfied with it and want to press for more. But the Barzani visit seems to legitimize what Erdogan has given so far. How would Barzani feel if Turkey’s Kurdish leaders visited the disputed city of Kirkuk in Iraq and talked about Arab-Kurdish brotherhood and said that it was time for peace and, whether intentionally or unintentionally, sent the message that what is there for Kurds in the city is enough and they should be content with what they have? I know that I would be angry if a Kurd from Turkey, Syria or Iran told me that Iraqi Kurds should stop whining about Kirkuk, move on and be content with what is already there. I know that we Kurds are one nation, but we did not all fight as one nation for Kirkuk, only Iraqi Kurds did and therefore it is not up to Turkey’s Kurds or Iranian Kurds to decide what’s best for Kirkuk, it is up to us Iraqi Kurds.<br /><br />As long as we are looking at having Kurdistan regions with autonomous powers within their states rather than one independent Kurdistan, I think the same is true for Turkey’s Kurds, and Syria’s Kurds. They know better what is best for them and only they should have the right to decide that because, in the same way, only they fought for Kurdish rights in Turkey and not the whole of the Kurdish nation as one. One might say Mustafa Barzani, Massoud Barzani’s father, fought alongside Qazi Mohammed during the Mahabad Republic in 1946. But I am not talking about that long ago, I am talking about recent years, and besides, when Barzani joined Qazi Mohammed, the Kurdish regions in the four countries had not become as distinctive as they are today and Kurds still strived for one independent Kurdistan state rather than Kurdistan regions with autonomous powers.<br /><br />I see Barzani’s recent Turkey visit as a positive event for Kurds in general, and the Kurdistan Region in particular. Kurds need to build friendly relations with Turks, Arabs and Persians if they ever want to have their own independent state. However, Kurdish leaders and their supporters should stop denying each other because they do not agree. Differences are not bad, they are just differences. And a supreme Kurdish leader is a matter of relativity as long as there is not an independent Greater Kurdistan where polls can be held to determine this.</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/SKeW6fkbTlk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com3http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2013/11/friendly-relations-and-then-some.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-71596632986755588272013-11-08T10:07:00.001+03:002015-05-20T10:47:24.224+03:00Towards a National Anthem for Kurdistan<div dir="ltr"><div class="" style="clear: both; color: #5c5c5c; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="" style="border: 3px double rgb(234,234,234); float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; padding: 1px;"><div style="background-color: white;"><b>This article was originally published by Kurdistan Tribune. <a href="http://kurdistantribune.com/2013/towards-national-anthem-for-kurdistan/">Here is the Link.</a></b></div><div style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white;">Recently, I watched a short video footage of the late Kurdish singer Ahmet Kaya in which he is to be named as the Musician of the Year in Turkey. Kaya appears on stage as he receives the award and says, “I am receiving this award on behalf of everyone struggling for human rights. In my next album, I will sing in Kurdish and will make a Kurdish video clip. I am sure there are courageous TV people who will air this.”</div><div style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span id="more-16138"></span></div><div style="background-color: white;">But no sooner had he said&nbsp; this than he was showered with swear words by the attending Turk artists. Some of them shouted angrily that there is nothing called “Kurd” or “Kurdish language”. Others waived their hands in the air as they spoke unintelligibly because of the uproar of the audience. Kaya was speechless. It was heart breaking. Later I did a little research: reading&nbsp; related articles, watching other videos. I found out that on that night Kaya was also pelted with forks and spoons by the attendants and that he barely survived an attack by some of the attendants. He was also pounded by the mainstream Turkish media as a “traitor”, and was also prosecuted on false charges and sent into exile in France where he died the following year, of a heart attack.&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white;">Today, I read on one Kurdish news outlet that Turkey’s Nationalist People’s Party (MHP) opposes efforts to have a Kurdish language dictionary printed by the state printing and publishing facility. Mehmet Gunal of the MHP has reportedly said in the Turkish parliament that recognizing Kurdish language divides the state language and serves as a step toward federalism in the country. I understood the Kurdish sentiment behind the article. I am also a Kurd and all that denial of the Kurdish identity, culture and language is very relatable. It was heart breaking again. I can’t understand how a person can deny the ethnic and cultural identity of someone else. How can you hold so much hate for someone else based on the fact that they are different from you one way or another?<br /><br />I tried very hard to imagine myself doing to a non-Kurd those things the Turkish audience did to Kaya, and I couldn't. And I believe that no Kurds - who have seen decades of discrimination, denial, and forced assimilation - should be able to imagine that. But as much as I love this to be true with every single Kurd, it is still far from reality. Disagree with me? well, here is what was also going on recently:<br /><br />A few members of the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG) – an opposition party in the Kurdistan Parliament – did not stand up in a Kurdistan parliament meeting when the Kurdish Anthem was played. They based their rejection of the anthem on grounds that it contained blasphemy, and later in an attempt to divert all of the criticism some of their brethren said it did not represent all ethnic groups in Kurdistan. This stirred outrage among the nationalist Kurds on social media networks and has been further hyped up by the media close to the secular Kurdish parties.</div><div style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white;">Now, the point here is not to defend the Islamic MPs for what they did. I am not an Islamist person and I do not appreciate what those Islamic MPs did on such grounds that the lyrics of the anthem contain blasphemy, because I have always been of the opinion that poetry should not be treated within rigid frameworks of right and wrong, good and bad. I have also been of the opinion that those Islamic party members generally spend more time worrying about such trivial things than on understanding the poem's historical and political context. I believe “Ey Reqib” is the “Kurdish” anthem, I honor it, and stand up to its playing. But, I do not believe it is a good anthem for Kurdistan because it is sung specifically for Kurdish ethnics.<br /><br />And we know that Kurdistan, as in “Kurdistan Region” which is a federal region in northern Iraq, has a diverse ethnic and religious makeup. Let me explain. Kurds, Arabs, Turkmans, Assyrians, Syriac, Chaldean and Armenians live in Kurdistan and they hold such faiths as Islam, Christianity, Yezidism, Kakayi and Atheism. Ey Reqib is full of praise for the Kurdish valor, bravery, struggle of the Kurdish people, fight for freedom of Kurdish people, the Kurdish identity, the Kurdish language. Below is some excepts form the anthem:<br /><br />"... the Kurdophone people still remain.."<br />"Kurdish people stand up valiantly.."<br />"We are sons of Medya and Kaykhusraw" - In reference to the mesopotamian poeple and empire of the same name that Kurds consider to be the ancesstors of Kurds.<br /><br />Did you notice any patterns? It is all “Kurdish” and not diverse as is the “Kurdistan Region”</div><div style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white;">On many occasions, Kurdish political leaders – and I mean all of them including the Islamic and secular and nationalist leaders alike, and at the top of the list, President of Kurdistan Region Massoud Barzani – have stressed that Kurdistan is not only the land of “Kurds” but also of all the other ethnic groups that live in Kurdistan. And history proves that and I support that statement.&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white;">Now, can you, as a Kurd who has seen discrimination, denial, and forced assimilation by the Iraqi Arab nationalist governments, Turkish fascist governments and Persian regimes, imagine why Ey Reqib is not a good national anthem for Kurdistan Region?</div><div style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white;">If the answer is ‘yes’, then I believe this has reminded you that the anthem is hurting other minority groups in Kurdistan and it should be replaced. That does not mean that we have to give it up altogether. We can still retain it as the “Kurdish” anthem – “Kurdish” as in “that which pertains to Kurds”, as opposed to the “Kurdistan national anthem” where Kurdistan is a federal region - or hopefully an independent country in the future - with a mixed ethnic structure.There needs to be this distinction between an anthem for Kurdistan (the diverse region) and an anthem for Kurds (the homogeneous ethnic group)</div><div style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white;">I am assuming that there will not be a flat “No” answer, but rather something like “Yes I understand, BUT… "</div><div style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white;">But there is only one humanely right answer.<br /><br />If you are thinking that Ey Reqib should still be the national anthem of Kurdistan (whether as the federal region, or the independent state), then I beg you to consider this: If you are old enough to remember the Baath Regime in Iraq and the then-Iraqi national anthem – I remember singing it in school, though not its connotations – How did you like it when you heard the anthem glorifying the “Arab land” and its “Arab headscarf” and how the “Arab sands” kindled a “revolution”?</div><div style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white;">If your answer is that you did not hate it and believed it was okay because it was the national anthem, then you were either too young to know, like I was, or too busy to be worrying about it for whatever reason, or you were simply, by today's nationalist standards, a fake Kurd, a traitor, a jash (like people used to refer to Kurds who worked with the Arab Iraqi governments)&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white;">And if you hated it and yet still want Ey Reqib to remain as the anthem of Kurdistan then you are doing nothing different from what Saddam Hussein and the repressive governments of Iraq, Turkey and Iran did – and may be still doing – to Kurds for decades. You have taken the exact same steps.</div><div style="background-color: white;"><br /></div></div></div></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/9oprRndKtBw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com0http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2013/11/towards-national-anthem-for-kurdistan.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-53819386203499050482013-09-29T06:01:00.000+03:002013-09-29T06:02:20.357+03:00The New York Times fancy map of how five countries in the Middle East could become fourteen<br />The New York Times has published a potential new map of the Middle East which looks good to me as a Kurd. But it&nbsp;looks more like wishful thinking than a real evaluation because I think it is far more complicated than this simply put by the New York Times. I think the person who drew this map was thinking about the issues in the Middle East more like "I think this is the best solution for all the issues" rather than "I think this is what is going to happen because of this and that". The issue here is that other than Kurds in the Middle East, every body else wants a "unified country" than seeing the country be divided into smaller countries or regions.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/29/sunday-review/how-5-countries-could-become-14.html?ref=sunday"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e0fww3tZjwc/UkeXsC5tEWI/AAAAAAAABTI/4IaK5xzlbQk/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-09-28+at+9.59.22+PM.png" /></a></div><br />Americans suggested that Iraq be divided into three federal regions, Sunni, Shite, Kurdish, in order to overcome disputes but it was rejected by Sunnis and many Shites alike, other than Kurds. Sunnis who are now minorities in Iraq are the most ferocious opposers of this division into three regions or possible states. &nbsp;They never stop complaining about the powers of the central Shiite held government yet they stress on one central government. The issue here is that each one claims that they want a unified country, but one which gives them the power to rule. Shites want a unified country ruled by Shiites, Sunnis consider different federal regions and division a blasphemy and they want a unified country, looking back on it with nostalgia how great Iraq was under Sunni rule. The same thing applies to Syria as well. Sunnis Arabs who form the majority see the opportunity to rule the whole country as the Shiites did in Iraq after the 2003 fall of Saddam so they will never give up on a unified Syria. Kurds want at least autonomy, or a Kurdish region government by a Kurdish government within Syria just like in Iraq, but Sunni Arabs vehemently oppose it.<br /><br />Other than that, if this could be accepted by all, I do believe [like the editor might have thought than evaluated the issues] that it is a good solution to the turmoils in the Middle East.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/pjhMwPn1bEA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com0http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-new-york-times-has-published.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-87764740877805914872013-08-14T20:20:00.002+03:002013-08-14T20:21:50.341+03:00A group of young Kurds from Iraqi Kurdistan decide to go to Syria for "Jihad for Kurdistan" against al-Qaeda linked groups <br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A group of young Kurds from Iraqi Kurdistan have announced in a video posted on youtube to go to Syria to do "Jihad for Kurdistan" against al-Qaeda linked groups the Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which are currently fighting alongside some other groups against the Kurdish forces not submitting to the JN/ISIS.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In the video, nine young masked Kurds appear before a flag that is raised by the the People's Defense Units (YPG) the military wing of the Democratic Union of Kurdistan (PYD) - the main Kurdish party in Syria that controlling the Kurdish territories.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The YPG has been in a deadly fight with the JN/ISIS and some other groups linked with them for a few weeks now. The JN/ISIS and other rebel groups accuse the YPG of working with Mr Bashar al-Assad against the rebels because they do not help the rebels in overthrowing Assad. YPG denies such claims and asserts that they are protecting Kurdish territories and are not willing to fight elsewhere.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Recently JN/ISIS fighters killed at least 26 Kurds in the villages of Tal Hassil and Tal Aran which Syrian Kurds have called a massacre and an ethnic cleansing in the villages with mixed groups. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the numbers and also said rebels fighters detained Kurds and handed them over to JN/ISIS in the city of al-Safeera who reportedly tortured them. SOHR also said "<span style="line-height: 18px;">family members of the killed and wounded refrain from reporting the murder of injury of their relatives out of fear from the ISIS, al-Nusra and rebel fighters attacks, who usually detain them, as has been the case for over 250 citizens from the towns of Tal'arn and Tal Hasil. "</span></span><br /><span style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">One of the young men reads a statement from a paper in Sorani Kurdish. He starts the statement by "Jihad for Kurdistan". he defines Jihad as "Jihad is defense, revenge and honor"</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"The Kurds in Syria have been able for the past two years to strengthen their foothold democratically. but the occupying forces and those who grudge the achievements of our nation continuously attack our people and commit genocide against us in the most brutal way"</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"Even in the holy month of Ramadan they did not stop their attacks" the man says and goes on to blame the Kurdish forces in Iraqi Kurdistan for being silent and not doing anything about it.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"Just like when Anfal campaign (genocide against Kurds in Iraq) was carried out by the Baath regime in South Kurdistan (Iraqi Kurdistan), now the same is being committed against Kurds by the militia groups with the support of NATO, the US and Turkey"&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"we have decided.... to join the ranks of the YPG and lay down our lives in its way. Those who do not have a homeland do not have honor and dignity. Those those attack Kurds children are Arab fascists, agents of the United States.. they use word Jihad but this a betrayal of Islam and humanity... and when a person, people or group is attacked and they do not show any self-defense then thy have no honor"&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The man goes on again to criticize the Kurdish government in Iraq and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in particular. the KDP currently holds the prominent government posts in Kurdistan such as the Prime Minister, Ministry of the Interior and the President of Kurdistan Region. The KDP is the "servant of Turkey and the US"</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="415" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/cuVGdZRP_vU" width="715"></iframe><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/HkKvj4bWl7Q" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com0http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-group-of-young-kurds-from-iraqi.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-86383933230159966042013-08-05T11:14:00.002+03:002013-08-05T11:50:47.159+03:00Egyptian series rekindles Kurdish outrage over case of 18 Kurdish women being sent into sex slavery by Iraqi regime in 1989<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">An Episode of an Egyptian series Niran Sadeeqa [Friendly Fire] that is aired on the Saudi channel MBC for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan has rekindled a public outrage among Kurds on social networks recently about the story of 18 Kurdish girls and women who were sent to Egypt by the Saddam Hussein regime to be forced into sex slavery about a quarter of a century ago.</span><br /><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qXLJVvYeum4/Uf9eohgcdcI/AAAAAAAAA2Q/r263NCcpaU8/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qXLJVvYeum4/Uf9eohgcdcI/AAAAAAAAA2Q/r263NCcpaU8/s1600/2.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Khurasan Abdullah (top) and her daughter Chiman<br />(A little girl in the ID photo) And below the photos<br />is the Iraqi intelligence secret letter from the Kirkuk office<br />to the main office in Baghdad and below that is the &nbsp;wearing <br />photo page of the Iraqi ID of Chiman whose&nbsp;Mother's <br />name Khurasan Abdullah also appears on the same page</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the scene, a young Egyptian protagonist appears talking to a man who is apparently working for his father about how 18 Kurdish girls and women who were captured by the Saddam Hussein regime in the Anfal operations in Kurdistan ended up in his night club. The man replies that he has no authority and that he is just following orders [the protagonist's father]. When the protagonist talks to his father how and why he had accepted to force the Kurdish women into working in the night club, the father replies “Son, isn't it better for them [to live] than to die like others [Kurds] who die on a daily basis [in Iraq]?” referring to the Anfal operations.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">No, it is better for them to die. At least they die martyrs. It is more honorable for them to die than to be forced into working in the night club” the young man replies to his father.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Anfal was a series of military operations aimed at crushing the Kurdish revolt in the 1980s. In the campaign, the Iraqi army destroyed 5,000 Kurdish villages and rounded up up to 182,000 civilian Kurds among them women and children, killed them and buried them in mass graves. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The mention of the Kurdish girls and women created a public outrage especially because an Iraqi intelligence document surfaced on the social networks a few years ago according to which the Kirkuk provincial office confirmed to the general intelligence office in Baghdad that they had sent the women to Egypt to be used in the “night clubs” and the document included a list of the names of all the girls and women who aged between 14 and 29 years. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The letter from the Kirkuk office which is dated December 20<sup>th</sup>1989 and is addressed to the general intelligence office, states: “After [receiving] immediate authorization from the political leadership and carrying out the First Anfal and Second Anfal operations, in which a group of different people were captured among them a group of girls whose ages range between (14 – 29), we have, as per your orders, sent a number of those girls to the brothels and night clubs in the Arabic Republic of Egypt as you ordered. Attached is a list of the names of those girls and their ages for your reference”</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">All those years the surviving families of the girls and women thought their loved ones had been killed in the Anfal campaign until the intelligence document which is marked "highly clasified" appeared on the social media.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Kurdish authorities did not launch any investigations into finding the women in Egypt or what happened to them when the document surfaced for the first time following the 2003 Iraq war, according to Bestoon Fayaq, a political activist and advocate for the families of the Anfal victims. Fayaq said the authorities even dismissed the document as fake and said no Kurdish girls or women had been sent to Egypt. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Kurdish leadership lied to us” Fayaq has said (Niha24). “A few years ago... we asked Jalal Talabani, Iraqi President (a Kurd) to verify the authenticity of the news [that Kurdish women were sent to Egypt] and he assured us that he had contacted Egypt and that there was no such thing. Then we asked Adnan Mufti, former Kurdish Parliament Chairman [to investigate the news] and he answered the same way” (Sbeiy)</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Fayaq said the mentioning of the 18 Kurdish girls and women was evidence that the story was true otherwise why would it be brought up in an Egyptian series. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Following up on the story of the 18 Kurdish girls and women, Sbeiy news outlet – which is associated with the opposition party Gorran – released ID information of three of the names listed on the document including ID photos of two of them whose only surviving member of the family had survived the Anfal campaign.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Three of the names on the list are Chiman Nazim Abbas, Layla Abbas Jawhar and Khorasan Abdullah Tawfiq. Sbeiy has identified a man in Sulaimaniyah city named Karim Abbas Jawhar who claims he is the brother of Leyla Abbas Jawhar, uncle of Chiman Nazim Abbas and brother-in-law of Khurasan Abdullah Tawfiq who is also the mother of Chiman Nazim Abbas.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">According to Sbeiy, Mr Karim has called on the Kurdish authorities to investigate the fate of his family members but they had let him down. Despite legal attempts by Mr Karim, his case has been closed by the authorities, Sbeiy reports. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Kurdistan Without Genocide, an NGO advocating the Anfal victims, called on the KRG in a statement to immediately cut ties with Egypt until the authenticity of the document is verified (Niha24)</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />Three other NGO that advocate the Anfal victims have warned the KRG to take action and return the 18 girls and women to Kurdistan or they will have "tough reactions"and will take "legal procedures" against the KRG (KNNC)<br /><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Kurdistan Regional Government's Minister of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs Aram Ahmed Mohammed has pledged to pursue the case of the 18 Kurdish women after the family of another member of the 18 women pleaded with the ministry to disclose the fate of their family member.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Abdul Khaliq Qader Aziz is another person who survived Anfal and is claiming one of the women listed in the document, Esmat Qader Aziz, to be his sister. Acording to a statement released by the Ministry, Mr Abdul Khaliq has visited the Ministry and met with the Minister and personally asked him to pursue the fate of his sister and other 17 women. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.21in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"The ministry will make all efforts to pursue the case in order to reach the truth of this news seriously, so the Minister if Martyrs and Anfal and a group of families of the victims will visit Consulate of Republic of Egypt in the capital Erbil to pursue the case as a first step” the minister has said in a statement quoted Shafaq News.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Names of the girls and women and their ages as listed in the Iraqi intelligence letter:</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Galawej Adel Rahim (14) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chiman Nazim Abaas (22) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leyla Abbas Jawhar (21) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lamiah Nazim Omar (19) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bahman Shukir Mustafa (26) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Khusaran Abdullah Tawfiq (20) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Qadriyah Ahmed Ibrahim (17) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Golmalek Ibrahim Ali (19) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Khawla Ahmed Fakhradeen (25) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Esmat Qader Aziz (24) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Najiba Hassan Ali (18) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hasiba Ameen Ali (29) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Shiler Hassan Ali (20) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Shukriyah Rustem Mohammad (27) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Habiba Hidayat Ibrahim (15) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Kuwestan Abbas Mawlud (26) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Serwa Othman Karam (17) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Soza Majeed (22) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Link to the Egyptian series scene: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=166565986861512&amp;set=vb.191172917580661&amp;type=2&amp;theater">https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=166565986861512&amp;set=vb.191172917580661&amp;type=2&amp;theater</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://www.niha24.com/Direje.aspx?Jimare=20833">http://www.niha24.com/Direje.aspx?Jimare=20833</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://www.sbeiy.com/Detail.aspx?id=22472&amp;LinkID=4">http://www.sbeiy.com/Detail.aspx?id=22472&amp;LinkID=4</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://sbeiy.com/Detail.aspx?id=22552&amp;LinkID=4#.Uf8tgNFYOuI.facebook">http://sbeiy.com/Detail.aspx?id=22552&amp;LinkID=4#.Uf8tgNFYOuI.facebook</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://www.shafaaq.com/en/politics/6859-kurdish-minister-vows-to-pursue-the-18-girls-sent-to-egypt-case.html">http://www.shafaaq.com/en/politics/6859-kurdish-minister-vows-to-pursue-the-18-girls-sent-to-egypt-case.html</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><a href="http://knnc.net/Detail-4840-4-False#.Uf9mLmTwKz1">http://knnc.net/Detail-4840-4-False#.Uf9mLmTwKz1</a></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/7apaTHIsQ3w" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com4http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2013/08/egyptian-series-rekindles-kurdish.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-84503483122049903742013-07-29T01:23:00.001+03:002013-08-11T00:41:29.251+03:00Russia-US rivalry in Syria and Kurdish autonomy<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Last year, Russia and China vetoed a UN security council resolution to impose economic sanctions on Syria because it failed to yield to peace plans. The US ambassador Susan E. Rice called it a “dark day” because “we have missed yet another critical opportunity to work together”. The United States was a very keen on removing Mr. Assad and the resolution included some severe punishments including sanctioning on the Syrian government under the UN's Chapter Seven which allows for external military intervention in the country to enforce Security Council demands. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Russia saw the sanctions as opening the door for military intervention and therefore could not accept it. The United States saw this reality and therefore in August that year, according to a Reuters report, US President Barack Obama signed a “secret” order to support Syrian rebels bring Assad down. According to the report, the United States was collaborating with a secret command center operated by Turkey in Adana city, about 60 miles from the Syrian border. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Now that the fighting between the Assad regime and rebels is in it third year, the US has abandoned its plans for a sanction under UN Charter's Chapter 7 which allow for direct military intervention knowing that such a UN resolution will not easily be accepted by Russia to whom Bashar Assad has been a long time ally and Russian weapons buyer. But almost a year after it first authorized secret support for Syrian rebels, it officially announced support alongside 10 other countries including Saudi Arabia, for the Syrian rebels taking the Russian-US one step up. Russia on the other hand announced support for Syria's Kurds who are currently in a severe fight with the Jabhat al-Nusra (JN), Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) – both of these groups are al Qaeda affiliates -, and the al-Faruk Brigade, which is part of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) but joined hands with the other two groups to fight the Kurdish forces called the YPG (Poeple's Defense Units) supported by the PYD (Democratic Union Party) that's believed to be an off-shoot of the Leninist-Marxist PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party). The YPG is trying to impose Kurdish control over the Kurdish territories in Syria as the preliminary stage for autonomy or self-administration which the US opposes.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The past week witnessed, and continues to see more, intensified fighting between JN/ISIS on the one hand and the YPG and the Jabhat Akrad one the other. Jahat Akrad was part of the FSA but defected to fight on the YPG side against the JN/ISIS after the Kurds reported attacks by the JB/ISIS on the Kurdish residents. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">US and Russian rhetoric on the clashes between the two sides is already polarized with Russia condemning the attacks by the JN/ISIS and showing support for the Kurds, while the US State Department said it watched the developments and was concerned that the violence could spill over to some of the neighboring countries in the region. The US State Department also voiced concern over plans by the PYD to establish a Kurdish administration in the Kurdish areas until the war in the country is over. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">According to reports, dozens have been killed in the clashes, mostly from the JN/ISIS, and the Kurdish YPG forces have made swift advances in the mostly Kurdish populated areas around Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) city and Gre Spi (Tal Abyad). </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Russia directly showed support for the Kurdish people and the YPG fight against the al-Qaeda affiliates. The Russian foreign Ministry was also very specific in describing the actions of the JN/ISIS who “ started to kill innocent people by cutting off their heads,”a statement by the foreign ministry said, “Kurds had to free Abu Musab in exchange for an agreement to release hostages.”</span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">"Moscow strongly condemns the atrocities of international terrorists in northeastern Syria and the excesses and abuses perpetrated by extremists against a peaceful Kurdish population which is not involved in the ongoing political and military conflict in Syria,"</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">According to Koshan Zamani, a Kurdish political activist and observer, the reason for Russia's support for the Kurds is obvious: “[The existence of] al-Qaeda has never served, and never will serve, Russia. They have a history of conflict and war. Besides, the Kurds were a neutral force in Syria and this served the extension of Bashar Assad's regime, and by extension the supremacy of Russia in the area.”</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Russia is also trying to enlist Kurds for the Geneva II peace conference. On June 2, a delegation from the <span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Supreme Kurdish Council (SKC), a body that unites Kurdish parties from Syria,went on an official visit to Syria to meet Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow (source) in order to get help from Russia for a place for Syrian Kurds in the peace conference. </span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Alan Semo, a PYD member has told al-Monitor that Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has promised them that “without you [the Kurds], there will not be any meeting in Geneva,”</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Acording to Ahmed Suleiman, a spokesman of the Supreme Kurdish Council, “Russia respects the Kurdish people in Syria and recognizes that the Kurds are following a legitimate struggle. The existence of the Kurdish people is denied and in the new Syrian constitution, the rights of Kurds must be recognized.”</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The United States, Turkey's long time ally on the other hand does not support a Kurdish autonomy in Syria and is not happy about Kurdish control in northeast of Syria along the Turkish border and YPG gains on the JN/ISIS despite their knowledge of al-Qaeda fighters being among the ranks of the Jihadi Islamist groups. Al-Nusra and ISIS are publicly affiliated with the al-Qaeda. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">In a statement posted on the US State Department website, <span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">US State Dept spokesperson Jen Psaki said "We’re very concerned by press reports indicating that the Kurdish Democratic Union might declare an independent Kurdish region in Syria. Such a declaration is highly provocative, as it will certainly exasperate tensions between Arabs and Kurds and give excuse for extremists to exploit the situation. So we’re also watching that and we’re concerned about that as well."</span></span>”</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">But she had nothing to say about the ISIS (technically al-Qaeda) and Kurdish clashes other than "We continue to follow reports that Syrian Kurds are fighting ISIS in the Raqqah province. We’ve been very clear about our concerns over the regional instability calls by the crisis in Syria and the propensity for spillover violence. We’re obviously watching events on the ground all across Syria very closely."</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Zamani told Kurdish Observer the United States does not support Kurds in Syria because the US is more interested in the “bigger interests”. “No matter how much bloodshed there is in Syria, they [US] still prefer one [unified] country to a Kurdish opposition group who are a minority in the country as compared to the Sunni and Alevite Arabs. Therefore, the US is not ready to support Kurds. The US has long been in disagreement with the Kurdish interests because Kurds are a minority in the Middle East. The US wants to see a stable Middle East, any claims of human rights and any such things are merely slogans and will not see US support if they are not in he interest of the United States”</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #323232;">According to Zamani, Syria has long been the ground for Russian-US rivalry. Russia is represented by the Bashar Assad regime, and the United States is represented by the rebel groups. But why has the United States not taken military action to resolve the issue? Is it because it fears that Russia will back Mr Assad even in a US-Syria conflict? Koshan Zamani says “no”</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #323232;">“<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The thing is United States is not sure about the future of Syria. Chances are the Islamists will accede to power and the US is not ready to leave Syria for Islamists... if the US wants to remove Assad militarily, they can do it easily and Russia will hand it over to them. But the change in regime will not benefit the US and Israel” </span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">References:</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://www.trt-world.com/trtworld/en/newsdetail.aspx?haberkodu=8b86e085-5f4d-4f10-a979-44ca0e211466"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">http://www.trt-world.com/trtworld/en/newsdetail.aspx?haberkodu=8b86e085-5f4d-4f10-a979-44ca0e211466</span></span></a></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/06/syrian-kurds-participate-geneva-ii-conference.html"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/06/syrian-kurds-participate-geneva-ii-conference.html</span></span></a></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://rt.com/news/al-qaeda-civilians-hostage-syria-479/"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">http://rt.com/news/al-qaeda-civilians-hostage-syria-479/</span></span></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/23/us-kurds-congress-idUSBRE96M0NA20130723"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/23/us-kurds-congress-idUSBRE96M0NA20130723</span></span></a></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/220720131"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/220720131</span></span></a></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/world/middleeast/russia-and-china-veto-un-sanctions-against-syria.html?_r=0"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/world/middleeast/russia-and-china-veto-un-sanctions-against-syria.html?_r=0</span></span></a></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-22/u-s-pledges-support-for-syria-rebels-without-specifying-details.html"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-22/u-s-pledges-support-for-syria-rebels-without-specifying-details.html</span></span></a></span></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/ioF-RlaTZ8I" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com0http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2013/07/russia-us-rivalry-in-syria-and-kurdish.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-85247920568857949062013-07-24T02:58:00.001+03:002015-08-16T23:29:10.951+03:00Kurdish fighters went to Syria to fight Assad but "were used by al-Nusra and ISIS to fight Kurdish militias"<div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p2">Scores of young Kurdish fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan, Sulaimaniyah province, went to Syria to fight the Assad regime recently as the fighting between the Assad forces and rebels intensified. However they found themselves fighting a different force, one of their own ethnic group and language, the YPG (People's Protection Units), this is according to an interview by the Sterk TV with three young Kurdish fighters who claimed they laid down their weapons when coming in contact with Kurdish-speaking forces on the confrontation lines. The fighters are in YPG detention now.</div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p2">All the Kurdish fighters crossed into Syria through Turkey using their Iraqi passports. One of the three fighters appearing in the video says he entered Syria through Tal Abyad where he joined the Faruk Brigade and was given a gun and sent to the battle ground.</div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p2">"They told us that the TV report that there was a battle near Tal Tamar between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Assad regime. &nbsp;It was about 12 midnight we went to this village near Tal Tamar where we stayed in a room until morning, about 7 or 8 am when there was gunfire. There we found out they were Kurds and we laid down our weapons because we came here to fight Bashar Assad not Kurds"</div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p2">Another one of the young men says "we came here to liberate the Syrian people form Bashar Assad regime including the Kurds who are part of Syria.. But when we came here they [al-Nusra and ISIS] did not tell us where you are, Ras al-Ain…. there are Kurds, they said there were Bashar Assad regime [forces]. And when we went they told us that we were going to fight against Bashar Assad forces. It was about 12 midnight when we went there to fight, I called on my Kurdish friends in Kurdish and they [al-Nusra and ISIS] told me 'don't speak Kurdish"</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p2"><br /></div><br /><div class="p1"><br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="415" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kKCwQO8_-58" width="730"></iframe><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/TMBD84xgWr8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com1http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2013/07/kurdish-fighters-went-to-syria-to-fight.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-81886522801964075852013-07-21T01:51:00.000+03:002013-07-22T01:44:07.992+03:00Jihadist from Iraqi Kurdistan Region captured by the YPG Kurdish fighters in Syria<div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p2">A Kurdish Jihadist fighter, believed to be one of dozens who have infiltrated into Syria through Turkey ostensibly to fight against the Assad regime, has been captured by the Kurdish armed group YPG (People's Protection Units) that's close to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).&nbsp;</div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p2">The young man identifies himself as Mohammed Ali Sadiq from Sharazur area, Sulaimaniyah province. Media outlets close to the PKK said the man was captured in fights between the Jihadist al-Nusra Front and the YPG over territorial conflicts in Sare Kaniye (Ras al--Ain).</div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p2">YPG, a secular nationalist Kurdish group, has been in a deadly fight with the Jihadist groups that include al-Nusra, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and according to YPG reports some Syria Kurdish groups as well. YPG sources claim that up to 100 al-Nusra Jihadists have so far been killed and many captured. The group also reported 15 deaths among its ranks.</div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p2">YPG is fighting for Kurdish control over the Kurdish areas of Syria and ultimately an autonomous region similar to that in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.</div><div class="p2">The Kurdish Jihadist captured by the YPG says in the video posted on Youtube that he was "deceived" because he was told that he would be fighting the Assad regime but he found himself fighting Kurdish forces.&nbsp;</div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p2">YPG and PKK social media outlets said the Kurdish Jihadists were recruited in Halabja area, in Sulaimaniyah province, by some clerics and operatives of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (IMK) and the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG) - two political Islamist groups in Kurdistan Region. Media outlets close to the two parties have not said anything about it.</div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p2">"In return for any young man going [to Syria], the clerics and [IMK and KIG] officials will receive gifts and money from the MIT (Turkish intelligence agency) and the al-Qaeda organization" one PKK page called PKK Fans in the South [PKK Fans in Iraqi Kurdistan] accuses the two parties.&nbsp;</div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p2">Firat News Agency, close to the PKK, says the man is one 87 Jihadists from Kurdistan Region of Iraq who have ben recruited to fight in Syria.</div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p2">The Jihadists says in the video "Until we arrived here I thought everybody fought Bashar Assad, but when we arrived I realized that there were so many different groups and that they made us fight against Kurds" He also says that the al-Nusra Front did not trust the Kurdish Jihadists and only used them in any way they wanted.</div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p2">http://so.firatajans.com/news/roejnae/gh-njykhy-bshwr-bh-nwy-shh-r-lh-djy-y-h-sh-d-brdmyn-lh-djy-khwrd-shh-ryn-pykhrdm.htm</div><br /><div class="p1"><br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="415" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/24CnW0S6ZTU" width="730"></iframe><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/iS95zoX2SKs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com1http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2013/07/jihadist-from-iraqi-kurdistan-region.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-18135688427586607902013-07-19T23:21:00.002+03:002013-07-20T10:40:21.781+03:00Ex-Presidential candidate attacked by suspected KDP agents in ErbilSuspected agents loyal to the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in civilian attire attacked ex-Presidential candidate Kamal Said Qadir on Friday in downtown Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan Region, where he was planning to hold a protest gathering to talk to the public about the extension of Kurdish President Massoud Barzani's office for another two years as his time as President accelerated towards expiration after two full terms.<br /><br />The news of the protest gathering was circulated on the media earlier this week and as Sayed Qadir headed to his destination, boxes of tomatoes and eggs already awaited him. He was first pelted with tomatoes and eggs then according to reports civilian dressed men suspected to be Parastin (Protection) agents - the intelligence police established by the KDP - physically attacked him breaking his head.<br /><br />There were reports that the same men who attacked Sayed Qadir also attacked anybody with a camera photographing, or videoing the scene. Bayan Press reported that their reporter on the field said before the incident took place there were policemen in the area but they left just before the attack.<br /><br />The Bayan Press reporter has also said the men took Sayed Qadir, after beating him up, in addition to another senior citizen who had dared to say "Why are you doing this to this man?" One single photo surfaced on the online news outlets and social media networks showing Kamal Said Qadir covered in egg whites and blood. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zLaQmCfJzpk/UemeSW7qZKI/AAAAAAAAA1E/I1cSW3mivw4/s1600/1044428_610327465665202_1217484696_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zLaQmCfJzpk/UemeSW7qZKI/AAAAAAAAA1E/I1cSW3mivw4/s1600/1044428_610327465665202_1217484696_n.jpg" /></a></div>Abdulkhaliq Talaat, Erbil police chief, has told the media that people attacked him because he may have shown no respect for the conservative people of the city as they observed the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. "He came to the place drunk. There were some Syrian [Kurdish] egg-sellers and tomato-sellers there and people attacked him" Talaat has told Bayan Press, "Police were not around when he was attacked. It is true that there are police [patrols] downtown, but they were away from that area. We later took him to hospital"<br /><br />Bas, a weekly newspaper that's close to the KDP, reported on its website Bas-News.net that more than 100 people attacked Sayed Qadir and pelted whim with tomatoes, eggs and yoghurt, too. The newspaper says "eyewitnesses say that Kamal Said Qadir has uttered inappropriate words about the people of Erbil and God" and according to Rudaw, another news outlet close to the KDP, the police chief has said Kamal Said Qadir "was drunk and said in appropriate words on Islam"<br /><br />Kurdiu.org, a news outlet run by the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) which is also an opposition party, did not mention anything about Kamal Said Qadir uttering any words degrading or blasphemous to the Muslim faith and the fasting people of the city. Kurdiu goes on to allege that there were even policemen near the scene of the attack but they did not do anything and just looked on.<br /><br />Kamal Said Qadir later told Rudaw - the video of which was posted on youtube - in hospital that he was actually fasting. "for your information, I was fasting," he told the reporter. "I just broke my fast, the doctors know this, they gave me a piece of cooky when it was 7:30 pm [time to brake the fasting in Erbil area] so I can break my fasting. This is a tactic used by all the dictatorships, they accuse someone of something that is completely baseless. What is the excuse for me to say blasphemous words in front of Machko Cafe where I suggested for the gathering? does that make any sense?… trust me I have never in my whole life…." and they do not let him finish his words but I am assuming he was going to say "I have never drunk in my whole life"<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--sbjGPt2_U8/Ueo-XVykmkI/AAAAAAAAA1U/2CPVI63YBjo/s1600/1045179_3257605735195_351477663_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--sbjGPt2_U8/Ueo-XVykmkI/AAAAAAAAA1U/2CPVI63YBjo/s320/1045179_3257605735195_351477663_n.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: small;">Kamal Said Qadir After Being Released&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: small;">From Hospital</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Kamal Said Qadir was the first one to register with the electoral commission to run for the president post. He later dropped out due to financial and administrative issues. The elections were later put off for two years after the parliament passed laws that would extend Barzani's presidency for two years.<br /><br />Mr. Barzani has been in office for eight years as President of Kurdistan Region. His KDP tried to have Barzani elected as President for another four year term causing an outrage among the opposition parties. In the following deadlock the KDP and their ally Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), who form the majority of the parliament, extended Barzani's office for another two years to give the political parties more time to agree on an amended Presidential Law and a draft Constitution before next presidential elections are held. <br /><br />related articles: <a href="http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2013/07/barzanis-not-running-for-presidency.html">Barzani's not running for office statement only positive with great suspicion at best?&nbsp;</a><br /><br /><div><br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="415" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kBVifpeTio8" width="730"></iframe><br /><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="415" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/HSfPvwKa5WE" width="730"></iframe><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/76YHsKEBBGM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com2http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2013/07/ex-presidential-candidate-attacked-by.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-17648594347115791632013-07-17T17:55:00.001+03:002013-07-17T17:55:22.798+03:00Barzani's not running for presidency statement only positive with great suspicion at best? <div class="p1">In a written address to the people of Kurdistan on Tuesday, President of Kurdistan Region Massoud Barzani implied for the first time that he will not run for office in the next Presidential elections the date of which is yet to be determined after the current term of parliament and Barzani's office were extended by the parliament for another two years.</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">Barzani's address comes after a period of silence as the political parties in Kurdistan, Barzani's own KDP and their ally PUK on the one hand, and the opposition parties, Gorran, IUK, KIG on the other were, and still are, locked in a heated debate over the legality of the parliament&nbsp;extension of&nbsp;the life of the current term of parliament, and the presidential term allegedly to give the political factions&nbsp;more&nbsp;time to settle the questions of whether the&nbsp;current presidential elections allows Barzani to run for a third term in office or not, and the&nbsp;question&nbsp;of amending the Kurdistan Constitution bill which was passed by the majority vote, KDP+PUK, in 2009.</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">The opposition parties&nbsp;accuse the KDP and PUK who have had what they call the "strategic agreement" since 2007 to&nbsp;rule&nbsp;the semi-autonomous region together, entering the elections as allies rather than rivals, of trying to keep Barzani in office for another four years without any regard for the Presidential Law which states the President can run for two terms of four years.&nbsp;Barzani has already served two terms in office.&nbsp;</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">On May 5, Barzani said in an online statement that he never asked his party and their ally to try to guarantee a third term for him. That he never asked to be President but was nominated by his own party and was elected by the people of Kuridstan. But he did not explicitly say that he would not run for a third term if the KDP and PUK faction in parliament found a loop in the Presidential Law or passed new legislation allowing him &nbsp;third term.</div><div class="p1">&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</div><div class="p1">In Tuesday address, however, for the first time he implied that he will hand over his office to the "new elected president" after the parliament finds a consensus on the mechanism to amend the Kurdistan Constitution draft and the Presidential Law in on year.&nbsp;</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">"As of now, I call on the presidency of the next parliamentary term, under the light of the letter I sent to the current term of the parliament on 12/6/2013, to immediately find in its initial meetings, after the 21/9/2013 elections [are held], a mechanism whereby in less than a year it will reach a consensus on amending the Constitution bill and the mechanism of how to elect the President of the Region. Then elections be held for a new President for the Region so we hand over the trust we hold [presidential office] to any person who wins the confidence of the people of Kurdistan." a Kurdish language version of the address posted on the Presidential website said in one paragraph.</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">At first look, this sounds positive that he has committed himself to handing over powers to a new President which normally means someone else not himself, but I find it not so positive when looking at the politics of Kurdistan in general and the KDP politics in particular and that's why I am saying he implied not said.</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">According to the address. the election of a new president is dependent on the parliament's ability to find a consensus on how to amend the Constitution bill and the mechanism of electing the president, whether through a direct vote by the people, or a two third of the parliament. The direct vote is KDP's preference and this is how Barzani was elected twice, while the two-third vote of parliament is the PUK's and is also supported by the opposition parties. The Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani - PUK leader - was elected &nbsp;by a two-third parliamentary vote in the Iraqi parliament with the support of the KDP, and according to the "strategic agreement" between the KDP and PUK the President of Kurdistan would have to elected by the same mechanism by which the president of Iraq is elected, this was part of the power-sharing deal between the two parties according to documents (Kurdish and Arabic) leaked by Nawshirwan Mustafa, leader of the main opposition party Gorran who was a former PUK leadership member.&nbsp;</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">Going back to why the President's address is not so positive. It is not that I don't trust Barzani for his words, but because I do not trust his party. Last time Barzani said he did not ask anyone to extend his office or find a way for him to remain in office for a third term, the KDP demanded that the Kurdistan Constitution bill be put to vote which deepened the crisis. The passage of the bill was interpreted by the opposition parties as giving the President a lot of powers and that it would turn the political system into a presidential one rather than a parliamentary one which currently is. And the opposition parties know well that the KDP is the strongest party in the Kurdistan Region and may well dominate the Presidency frost or quite the next few terms at least and the many powers the president would have could be used against the opposition parties in favor of the ruling party.&nbsp;</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">The opposition was now left between the rock and the hard place. To accept a third term for Barzani or the Constitution bill being put to vote which would for sure be passed by a majority of 50+1 considering the size of the KDP and their ally PUK's fan base. The KDP has been cleverly manipulating the political arena of Kurdistan by raising a crisis whenever it is under pressure. Whenever it feels the press of the opposition parties for what wants to do, it raises another bigger crisis so that the opposition will accept the previous demands. In this case it was the Constitution draft. As the opposition parties resisted, the KDP -&nbsp;through by the KDP-led alliance in the parliament -&nbsp;introduced a second crisis on June 30: the extension of the parliament and the presidency for another two years . The two bills were passed the same day without paying any heed to the opposition MPs outrage and protests.&nbsp;</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">Barzani was abroad when the parliament extended the life of the parliament and the presidency. Media source said Barzani would have his own observations on the two laws upon his return hence the written address on Tuesday.</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">Now, as I said earlier, it is not that I do not trust Barzani for his words, but his KDP. &nbsp;Now that Barzani has said he will hand over power to the new elected president after the parliament has found consensus on how to elect the president or what to amend in the constitution in time frame no longer than one year, I am afraid that the KDP will introduce more crises so the day never comes when the parliament agrees on such mechanisms and this will give Barzani more time to remain in office until the issues are settled.&nbsp;</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">The paragraph in Barzani's address sure sounds positive when poising for a while on the words "handing over" and a "new president", but stings when going over the words "consensus on the constitution [draft] and the mechanism on how to elect the President". Barzani cleverly cleverly introduces the one year time frame so that he is not accused of wanting to prolong his office yet there is no guarantee that the parliament will ever find a consensus on the Constitution draft and on the mechanism on how to elect the President that's if no more political crises do not come forth to hinder the talks on these two main issues.&nbsp;</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">If there is no guarantee the Parliament will settle those issue, and if there is no guarantee in Barzani's address itself that he will not accept running for a third term or remaining in office longer than the one year time frame, then what is the solution? Sardar Aziz, a Kurdish author and visiting lecturer at the University College Cork Ireland,&nbsp;also an observer and commentator on the Kurdish politics, believes that only public pressure on Barzani can guarantee an end to his office. He has said in an article posted on Malmo Kurd website that some of what Barzani has said can only be viewed as positive with "great suspicion".</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">And what has got Barzani to utter those lines, according to Aziz, "is the result of the efforts of the opposition [parties], and public protests. The President will have to be held to account for these: not running for office gain, returning the Constitution [to parliament for amendment], setting his temporary office to a less than a year timeframe, provided that this is not dependent on compromises on the constitution. In that time period, Barzani's extension should expire if he succeeds, or fails, to get a consensus on the constitution,"</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">Sardar Aziz article</div><div class="p1">http://www.malmokurd.com/ArticleDetail-88-34#.Ueao4xbIY21</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">Barzani's May statement</div><div class="p1">http://krp.org/kurdish/articledisplay.aspx?id=R4jqvXMAp4c=</div><div class="p2"><br /></div><div class="p1">Barzani's July address</div><div class="p1">http://krp.org/Kurdish/articledisplay.aspx?id=m0m3bCNWwPc=</div><br /><div class="p2"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/OO2I5W6j8Ok" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com1http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2013/07/barzanis-not-running-for-presidency.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-21795061904667348202012-10-05T03:51:00.001+03:002012-10-05T13:10:03.193+03:00Kurds and Kurdistan in an event at Valparaiso University<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">On October 4<sup>th</sup>, 2012, my friend Rebaz Ahmed and I had the opportunity to speak to a group of about 80 retired American professionals at Valparaiso University. &nbsp;These people were interested in knowing more about Kurds, Kurdistan and Iraq. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to educate people about our own people, history and cause. </span><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ouw5dZk4FBs/UG4v03o5woI/AAAAAAAAAPs/4qmQ04ewbPg/s1600/Blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ouw5dZk4FBs/UG4v03o5woI/AAAAAAAAAPs/4qmQ04ewbPg/s400/Blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An elderly lady who attended the event who was very happy to learn more about Kurds and Kurdistan.&nbsp;</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">A summary of what we talked about:</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: Wingdings;">v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="color: yellow;">Historical background</span>: </span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Kurds, numbering about 40 million, are a people with a homeland of their own which was divided between Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran after the fall of the Ottoman Empire by the allied forces. In the Sevres Treaty of 1920, a popular referendum for the people of Kurdistan to decide whether they wanted to stick with Turkey or become an independent state was agreed upon. The Sevres Treaty, however, was soon replaced by the Lausanne Treaty in 1923 after the Turks fought back for their European territories around Istanbul and defeated the Greeks and gained control of the straits that connect the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. For a jointly commissioned control over the strait that linked the two seas, the British and the French abandoned their plans for Kurdistan. <b></b></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Wingdings;">v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><b><span style="color: yellow; font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Definition of Kurds</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">: Kurds are a distinctive ethnic group with their own distinctive history, language, culture, traditions, clothes, food and ways of living. They have their own homeland but do not have a state. They are not related to Arabs, Turks or Persians by ethnicity, and they are not related to Turks and Arabs by language. Kurdish is an Indo-European Language as compared to Arabic which is a Semitic language, and Turkish which is a Turkic language. Kurdish language, however, is related to Persian language. They are both Indo-European languages from the family of Iranian languages.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Wingdings;">v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="color: yellow;">Definition of Kurdistan Region</span>:</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"> Iraqi Kurdistan is a semi-autonomous region that has been recognized as a federal region by the Iraqi Constitution with its own administrative borders, armed forces and Regional Government (KRG).</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Wingdings;">v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="color: yellow;">Minorities in Kurdistan</span>: </span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Apart from Kurds, other ethnics groups also live in the region. These include: Turkmen, Assyrians, Syriac and Chaldean, in addition to Arabs who mainly moved to the region in recent years to flee the violence in other parts of Iraq. In addition to Sunni Islam (which is the faith of the majority), there are followers of other faiths including Catholic and Orthodox Christianity (Assyrians, Chaldeans and Syriac are Christians groups), Yazidees, Kakayis, and Shabaks (Shiite Muslims).</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Wingdings;">v<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><b><span style="color: yellow; font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Education and representation of minorities</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">: ethnic groups other than Kurds (who form about 5-7% of the region) have the right and option of sending their children to Kurdish schools, or schools that teach in their own native languages (as far as I know for sure there are Turkmen and Arabic schools as well. I am not sure about schools that teach in Assyrian, Chaldean or Syriac). And they have 11 seats in the 111 seat parliament. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Wingdings;">v<span style="color: yellow; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR" style="color: yellow;"></span><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="color: yellow;">Oppression of Kurds by the Iraqi regimes</span>:</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"> The Iraqi Kurds were subjected to oppression by the successive Iraqi governments. Saddam Hussein most brutally cracked down on the Kurdish freedom movement in the 1980s where he killed as many as 200,000 civilian Kurds – most of them women, children and elderly people - in a series of military operations code-named Anfal and in a chemical weapons attack on the city of Halabja. The victims of Anfal were taken to southern Iraq, mass murdered and buried in mass graves of which many have been discovered since 2003 and remains of thousands of the victims have been exhumed and reburied in Kurdistan Region. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Wingdings;">v<span style="color: yellow; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR" style="color: yellow;"></span><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="color: yellow;">Issues between KRG and Baghdad</span>: </span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">There are three main issues between the Kurdistan Regional; Government and Baghdad: Oil and gas deals, Peshmarga (Kurdish soldiers) forces, and disputed areas. The regional and central governments dispute over who has the right to sign oil deals with the energy companies that explore the oil fields. The Iraqi government wants to maintain the power to be the sole party to sign such deals while Kurdish leaders want for Kurdistan to have the right to sign such deals in order to manage their own oil fields. The two governments also disagree over who should pay for the Peshmarga forces. The Peshmarga forces have been recognized as part of the defense system of Iraq and on these rounds the Kurdish government wants Baghdad to pay their salaries while Baghdad argues that they need to be paid for by the regional government from its share of the general budget because they are regional forces. The Peshmarga are officially called the Regional Guard Forces. And the biggest issue is that of the disputed areas. Disputed areas refers to those areas – that span the provinces of Mosul, Erbil, Kirkuk, Slahaddin and Diyala – which were subjected to Arabization policies by the former regime where the demographics of those territories were changed at the expense&nbsp; of the indigenous Kurds for Arab settlers from central Iraq. The Arab settlers were urged to move to those territories in particular the oil rich province of Kirkuk in return they would be provided with facilities to settle there, agricultural land (that would be taken from Kurdish and Turkmen ethnics) and other incentives.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><b><span style="color: yellow;">Conclusion:</span><span style="color: lime;">&nbsp;</span></b></span></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">The majority of Americans do not know anything about Kurds or Kurdistan. A very small percentage of them actually know a little about Kurds. For instance they know that Kurds helped the Americans in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein. And they know that Kurds live not only in Iraq but also in Turkey and Iran. The majority of those who know this, however, do not know that there Kurds in Syria, Lebanon, Armenia, Russia and as far as Uzbekistan as well.&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">More importantly, the majority of them do not know anything about the atrocities and tragedies the Kurds went through under Saddam Hussein most notably the Anfal Operatinos and the Halabja Chemical Attack.</span></li></ul><br /><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/QstuMvK1Vvw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com2http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2012/10/kurds-and-kurdistan-in-event-at.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-57345969778675202622012-09-27T02:44:00.001+03:002012-09-27T04:01:30.760+03:00Majority of Iraqi Kurds support an independent Kurdistan: new poll<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">ERBIL, Sep. 26 (AKnews) – The majority of the Iraqi Kurds support the proclamation of independence from Iraq, a new poll shows.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">The poll conducted by the Kurdistan Institute For Political Issues was released on Wednesday in a press conference in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">The poll involved a 2500 people in the three provinces of Erbil, Sulaimaniyah and Duhok where the majority of the respondents thought it is now time for the proclamation of independence to create an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">According to the poll, 56.3% of the respondents said "yes" to the questions "Do you think it is not a good time for Kurdistan Region to proclaim independence?"</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">The level of support for the independence of Kurdistan varied from province to province, however. Sulaimaniyah respondents rejected the idea of an independent Kurdistan for the time being with only 46.42% of the 978 respondent saying "yes" to the same question. Duhok respondents by contrast threw heavy weight behind the cause with 81.21% of the 596 saying it was time for an independent Kurdistan.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Erbil poll takers' response was more in the middle with a small majority of 54.82% of 892 supporting an independent Kurdish state for the time being. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">The poll also asked why the respondents thought it was not time for a Kurdish state if their responses were negative.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Of the 2,500 poll takers 23.10% thought the US and International community support was not guaranteed. 26.37% thought a newly proclaimed Kurdish state would be under the threat of regional attack while 49.28 believed that the Kurdish region had yet some way to go before being able to survive as a Kurdish state.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">A small percentage of 1.25 did not respond to the question.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">The majority of the respondents (by a small margin) also prefer a referendum&nbsp;to be held in order for the people of the Kurdish region to decide and proclaim independence instead of a Kurdish leader going ahead and announcing that Kurdistan is independent.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">In&nbsp;response&nbsp;to this particular question&nbsp;of whom should announce the independence of Kurdistan only 27.49% said the President of Kurdistan Region, 20.79% said the Parliament of&nbsp;Kurdistan&nbsp;Region while the rest, 50.40% said the people of Kurdistan should do that in a&nbsp;referendum.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Also 1.5% abstained from responding to&nbsp;that&nbsp;question.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Sources:</span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; text-indent: -48px;">Mohammed, Fryad. "Majority of Kurds Are for Independence."&nbsp;</span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px; text-indent: -48px;">AKnews</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; text-indent: -48px;">. Ed. Raber Y. Aziz. N.p., 26 Sept. 2012. Web. 26 Sept. 2012. &lt;http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/4/327676/&gt;.</span><i style="font-family: georgia, serif;">&nbsp;</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="direction: rtl; text-align: right;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/V4lT2hb-z2s" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com2http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2012/09/majority-of-iraqi-kurds-are-for.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-45810656820775588102012-08-30T23:30:00.001+03:002012-08-30T23:32:50.365+03:00Minister of Natural Resources, Thank you for “saving national resources”<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)'s Minister of Natural Resources Ashti Hawrami made a rare interview with an Erbil-based newspaper, Rudaw, that was published on Aug. 29 in which he accused Nawshirwan Mustafa, the current leader of the main opposition party, Gorran, of signing oil contracts in 2006 – while he was a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party &nbsp;– that would give large shares of revenues to an exploration company in Sulaimaniyah that would monopolize the exploration in the province. He said as of his appointment as Minister of Natural Resources he had revoked that contract and had signed five deals instead of one for exploration of the same area of land in Sulaimaniyah which together would bring Kurdistan 100 times more revenue and would encourage competition among the companies. He complained that instead of being thanked for saving so much money, he was attacked by Mr Mustafa's Gorran for corruption. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">I am not surprised that Mr Hawrami wants to be thanked for what he is being paid for to do. It is just a syndrome in this country that affects officials' memories once they are in power they forget that they are there to <i>serve </i>people not to do them <i>favors</i> for which people normally show gratitude. However, on behalf of all my fellow citizens, I would like to <i>thank </i>Mr Hawrami for doing us the favor of <i>saving</i> so much money, but I would also like to make the following points regarding his remarks:</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Gorran Party has rejects such claims that Mustafa has sisgned any contracts. They say Miustafa never had a government position in order to sign a contract, and the Minister say at very beginning of the interview that the contract was signed "at the request of Mustafa" and then later on he says it "was signed by Mustafa", I wonder which is it?</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">While Hawrami talks about a mysterious 5 percent share going to two people (whom I am sure are not from Mr Mustafa's party or Mr Hawrami would not have hesitated to revel their identities) secretly, the oil revenue despite all the improvement and money savings the Minister talks about is not transparent and nobody actually knows where does the money go to.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">The claim that the previous contract would earn Kurdistan only $40 million instead of $5 billion under the current contracts sounds to me like pure propaganda because the two figures are just no close in any way so that someone can steal some extra money from the oil revenues and fool everyone. Besides, no one would be so fool as to sign a contract that is worth $500 million for only a $5 million bonus for the region knowing for sure that all secrets sooner or later would be disclosed.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Minister is so desperately in need of some pats on the shoulder as he repeats the question: "Why he did not thanks us.." for this and that. If the minister really thinks that Mustafa was involved in money laundering and corruption, then it is so naïve to expect from him to offer any gratitude for someone who discloses his scandals. Wouldn't it?</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mr Hawrami also refers to other contracts signed between Mustafa and other companies in which 20 percent would go to unknown people. So much for such accusations! If there is any evidence please provide it so we can believe it and so corrupt officials can be tried!</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mr Hawrami claims that KRG's oil contracts were approved by the parliament and 111 MPs&nbsp; "voted in favor of it" and among them "SOME"&nbsp; Gorran MPs. Well, I don't know what to say about this statement! If there were SOME Gorran MPs who voted in favor NOT all (there are 25 Gorran MPs in parliament apart from other opposition MPs), then he is contradicting his previous statement where he said 111 MPs voted in favor of the contracts because the Kurdish parliament is formed of 111 seats not more.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12pt;">Now look at this quote: "</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">During my visit with Mr. Mustafa… I also asked him if he was suspicious about the transparency of oil revenues in Kurdistan and his answer was that I</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> appeared honest and clean in performing my duty. I asked him why he didn't say the same thing on TV so people know the truth, but he said "why would I praise a government that I wish to overthrow?" how credible! Are we really supposed to buy that? It is nice to praise oneself by putting words into others' mouths, huh?</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: small;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">And this part is puzzling to me when the minister says $4.22 billion out of $5 billion in oil revenues will be used by the companies on projects? What projects? And are they public service projects? It seems that the KRG has only received about $730 million out of the $5 billion revenue an of which only $350 million as the minister says is obvious that was spent on water projects while the rest he has no idea about. However, it is not the rest of the $730 million that is a riddle to me, but the rest of the $5 billion. What exactly does that mean that about $4.22 billion of the revenues will be used by the companies on projects? I am assuming they mean more oil exploration projects and in which case all the $5 billion revenue Mr Hawrami claimed that would go to the KRG is not actually correct and that the companies still keep about 80 percent of the revenues.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Note</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">: I read this interview with Ashti Hawrami on <a href="http://ekurd.net/">EKURD.NET</a> which had reposted it from Rudaw Newspaper's website. I tried to find the original page on Rudaw but it seems that it has been removed or there was something wrong with the website that did not show the page. When you search the headline you can still find the link to the page on Rudaw newspaper's website, but when you click on it you will get an error message saying the page is not found. The article however was re-posted by a many websites before the original article disappeared on Rudaw's website.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">For the full interview on <a href="http://ekurd.net/">EKURD.NET</a> click the link below: <a href="http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2012/8/state6450.htm">http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2012/8/state6450.htm</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/aGTjCFKsDj4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com2http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2012/08/minister-of-natural-resources-thank-you_30.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-63138717040126881472012-08-30T01:06:00.001+03:002012-08-30T07:27:42.197+03:00A photo that says a lot more than words about the peaceful nature of KurdsI saw this photo on Facebook of a village Kurdish woman using the remains of a chemical bomb used by Saddam Hussein against the Kurds in the 1980s as a vase to plant flowers in. It is really inspirational!<br /><br />The photo reminds the world that Kurds are peaceful and want the world to be a better place. I was really&nbsp;inspired&nbsp;by the creativity of the woman. Who in the world would think that a bomb can actually be useful one day to plants&nbsp;flowers&nbsp;in?<br /><br />The photos sends some very strong&nbsp;messages&nbsp;to the world that:<br /><ul><li>"We are&nbsp;peaceful"</li><li>"we can make the world a better place if we turn our weapons down and celebrate the beauty of coexistence"</li><li>"We are not after revenge even though we were oppressed"</li><li>"We value brotherhood with our fellow Iraqis. As long as we are left in peace we will not harass anyone,"</li></ul><div>I especially liked the irony that Saddam Hussein's chemical bombs were supposed to terminate life, not only of Kurds, but also of animals, trees and wild life, but this woman has used that same bomb shell to create life.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WCmVMOPFqTw/UD6DfN3WwSI/AAAAAAAAAO8/l605UkMXxYc/s1600/614519_3194275236229_1679968777_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="427" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WCmVMOPFqTw/UD6DfN3WwSI/AAAAAAAAAO8/l605UkMXxYc/s640/614519_3194275236229_1679968777_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This photo appeared on a&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;account by the name&nbsp;<a aria-controls="ucrbfc_1" aria-haspopup="true" aria-owns="ucrbfc_1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=1846401921" href="http://www.facebook.com/ftambushy" id="js_7">Fariba Mimmi</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/ib-hSSnrfss" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com0http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-saw-this-photo-on-facebook-of-village.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-33427162675906252292012-08-29T07:23:00.000+03:002012-08-29T20:28:57.226+03:00Housing prices in Kurdistan higher than prices in California: repoft<br /><strong>A very impressive report about the incredible housing prices in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq by my friend and former colleague Mohammed Salih.&nbsp;</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>Some highlights:</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><br /><ul><li>In some areas, housing and property prices are higher than housing prices in California. &nbsp;</li><li>In some areas, prices have increased by 80 percent</li><li>The increase has mainly been caused by foreign investment</li><li>Kurdistan has attracted more than $20 billion in foreign investment since 2007&nbsp;</li><li>Over $10 billion of the $20 billion investment has been in the housing sector</li><li>Over 140,000 housing units have been built in recent years yet prices keep going up</li></ul><div><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pnGBLZCq35w" width="640"></iframe></div><br /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/TOF88ZLNe5w" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com2http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-very-impressive-report-about.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-39512168593873450922012-08-17T00:53:00.001+03:002012-08-17T20:03:23.824+03:00Maliki flexes muscle as he orders closedown of KRG representative office in Baghdad<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tensions between the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the central government in Baghdad were taken to a new height on Wednesday when authorities in Baghdad closed the KRG representation office in Baghdad at the request of the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Iraqi officials said the office did not have legal support to exist in Baghdad. However, Kurdish officials in Baghdad said the office <a href="http://www.aknews.com/ku/aknews/4/322062/">had the legal paperwork</a>&nbsp;that was signed by the Prime Minister himself. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yet, it is evident that the closure of the office was politically motivated and grounded in the recent tensions between Baghdad and Erbil as the office has been there for seven years now. The office was set up in 2006 after a visit by Maliki to the capital of Kurdistan Region, Erbil, where he agreed with Kurdish leaders on the opening of the office to coordinate relations between the two governments. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mohammed Ihsan, the KRG representative to Baghdad said that the order they received for the closure of the office explained that the <a href="http://www.hawlati.co/babetekan/25159">KRG-Baghdad relations were directly handled</a> between the two governments and therefore a KRG representation was not necessary in Baghdad. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">The closure of the office was quickly condemned by Kurdish MPs in Baghdad as an "illegal and unconstitutional" move by Baghdad. Mohsen Sadoun, <a href="http://www.aknews.com/ku/aknews/4/322062/">a senior member of the Kurdish Blocs Coalition (KBC) in the Iraqi Parliament said</a> the "The Iraqi government has to provide explanations for the decision [closure of KRG office].. this decision was illegal and unconstitutional… that is an official office… that has been in Baghdad for seven years."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jO6ropVx7eY/UC1vn1cnumI/AAAAAAAAAN0/9mSv0gbZTo0/s1600/maliki.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="248" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jO6ropVx7eY/UC1vn1cnumI/AAAAAAAAAN0/9mSv0gbZTo0/s320/maliki.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">The timing of Baghdad's action shows the extent to which Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is upset by KRG attitudes on a number of issues including oil deals, growing Kurdish-Turkish relations and KRG support for the rebellion in Syria against the Shiite minority regime about which Iraq has kept silent amid regional and international condemnations and calls on Bashar al-Assad to step down.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kurdistan's Oil Deals</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kurdistan Region has continued its oil deals with world energy giants. Recently the French giant Total also moved in </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.malpress.com/english/economy/555.html">buying a 35 percent stake in&nbsp;two exploration blocks</a> in Iraq's Kurdistan region. The move set off immediate response from the Iraqi government which has desperately tried to bar companies from dealing directly with the semi-autonomous region.</span></div><h2><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal;">The Iraqi government <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20120812-energy-giant-total-must-end-kurdish-deal-sell-oil-stake-iraq-kurdistan-france">warned Total to cease its dealings</a> with the KRG or </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal;">lose its share in a major oilfield in southern Iraq.</span></h2><h2><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal;">United States Exxon Mobile and Chevron, Russia' Gazprom &nbsp;are already working in the region.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal;"></span></h2><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Also, earlier this month, London-listed Genel Energy <a href="http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/2/320389/">increased its stake</a> in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region after it acquired a 23 per cent stake in the Bina Bawi exploration license. The deal was approved by the KRG and the acquisition was completed at $175 million.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">The UK-Turkish firm has interests in seven exploration and production licenses in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq. Among the license are two major producing fields; a 25 per cent stake in the Tawke field, Duhok province, and 44 per cent in the Taq Taq field of Erbil province.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">The firm also holds a 25 per cent interests in Peshkabir, 40 per cent in the Duhok, 18.75 per cent in Miran, 20 per cent of the Chia Surkh as well, all of which are located in Duhok province.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><br /></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">What added to Baghdad's rage was that Mehmet Sepil, the chief executive of Genel Energy said the central government <a href="http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/140099/iraq-%C3%ABlost-fight-against-arbil%C3%AD.html">had lost its energy fight</a> against the KRG in Arbil.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Let's take a look at companies operating there currently: Exxon, Chevron, Total and Gazprom. These are some of the largest oil companies in the world. What's more, Exxon, Total and Gazprom are also working in Baghdad [oilfields]. Baghdad says it will put those who operate in northern Iraq on a blacklist, but the largest companies in the world are working there. This issue is over. In addition, Baghdad operates too slowly, so the oil companies are escaping from there and moving to the north. The energy fight is over today. The important question is when Baghdad will admit this." He said.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sepil also predicted that Kurdistan "will see a large consolidation. The number of [oil]companies in northern Iraq, which is between 40 and 50 today, will fall to between 10 and 15 in two or three years," Sepil said, adding that the region has already proved its potential. What is happening in northern Iraq is typical, according to Sepil. "First the small companies penetrate, they find the oil, and sell [the field] after benefiting from it. Now this is the process taking place in northern Iraq."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kurdish-Turkish Relations</span></b><br /><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Recent rapprochements between Turkey and Kurdistan Region have sent waves of resentment across the Shiite dominated government authorities in Baghdad.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Earlier this month, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Kurdistan and made a side trip to Kirkuk, an oil-rich and disputed city which Kurds have been trying to incorporate into their, angering the Iraqi government.</span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">The Iraqi government <a href="http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/4/320729/">condemned the visit</a> as a "blatant interference in the Iraqi internal affairs" and said Davutoglu had violated the sovereignty of Iraq. Baghdad harshly criticized the Kurdish government for facilitating the Turkish official's Kirkuk visit. Baghdad also said it will review relations with Turkey. And on Aug. 15, the <a href="http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=289593">Iraqi Foreign Ministry denied a Turkish leader, who had plans to visit Kirkuk, visa into Iraq.</a></span><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Following the Turkish FM's Kirkuk visit, Baghdad has been complaining that <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/11/turkey-treating-iraqi-kurdistan-as-independent/">Turkey treats Kurdistan Region as independent from Baghdad.</a> Maliki told a Turkish TV channel that Turkey is "dealing with the (Kurdistan) region as an independent state, and this is rejected by us," </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">If Turkey "wants to establish good relations, its relations with the region must be built through the gate of Iraq," Maliki said.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Kurdistan's support for Syrian Kurds</span></b><br /><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><br /></span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">While the rest of the world has condemned Bashar al-Assad's brutal crackdown on civilians in the country, the Iraqi government has remained silent. Further to that, the <a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-07/23/c_131733647.htm">Iraqi government rejected in July an Arab League call</a> for the Syrian President to step aside from his post. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the decision was an intervention in the Syrian affairs.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Iraq's rejection to call on Assad to go <a href="http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/4/318329/">drew criticism from the Kurdish leaders</a> in the country. <a href="http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/4/318329/">Spokesperson for the KBC, Moayyed Tayyib, said</a> "What is happening in Syria is that the regular Syrian army is committing horrible crimes against the Syrian people.. And when these horrible crimes are committed, it is no longer an internal affair in any country"</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">The Iraqi government also shut down borders in the face of fleeing Syrians who sought refuge in Iraq from the violence in the country and sent army troops to a border crossing area that was controlled by the Kurdish Peshmarga forces. The border crossings were only opened <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/iraq-syria-border-crossings-refugees/24655489.html">after pressure mounted on al-Maliki</a> from within the country to provide shelter for the refugees.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">The deployment of troops to the Fish Khabur area on the Syrian border, in Duhok province, nearly broke out into a deadly fight between the <a href="http://aknews.com/en/aknews/3/319277/">two forces had it not been for a US intervention to play down the disputes.</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">The government claimed to have sent the troops to control the Syrian border to prevent the infiltration of militants from and into Syria and also to prevent fleeing Syrian from entering Iraqi territories. Apparently, Maliki believed that the Kurdish control of about 15 kilometer long border line made it possible for Iraqis to smuggle arms and support into Syria for the opposition forces in particular the Kurds who had taken over some towns and districts in the northeastern Syria.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Maliki's military movement came after Kurdistan Region's President Massoud Barzani said Syrian Kurds <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/07/201272393251722498.html">were being trained in Kurdistan</a> and would be sent home to "defend" their territories. </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/YDzWqUDn_wo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com4http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2012/08/maliki-flexes-muscle-as-he-orders.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-90471390853907239612012-08-06T08:52:00.003+03:002012-08-06T21:27:05.525+03:00Turkish FM’s Kirkuk visit: A tit-for-tat for Barzani’s efforts for a Kurdish region in Syria<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu paid a surprise visit to the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk last week after holding a meeting with the Kurdish leaders in Erbil about the future of the Kurds of Syria following a possible collapse of the Syrian regime setting off criticism from Iraqi officials.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/4/319979/">TheIraqi officials considered</a> the unexpected visit a “blatant interference in the Iraqi internal affairs” while Turkish officials said it was a “peaceful” visit to the city where the FM met with the Turkmen community with whom Turks share close ethnic and historic ties. Following the visit, Iraq summoned Turkish ambassador to protest the visit while Turkey summoned the Iraqi ambassador to tell him that the <a href="http://www.todayszaman.com/news-288541-turkey-hits-back-at-iraq-in-kirkuk-visit-controversy.html">Iraqi government’s statements were “unacceptable”</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">When a high ranking foreign official such as Davutoglu visits, without notice, a disputed city in Iraq that is claimed by each of the Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen communities that has been the source of tensions between Baghdad and Erbil for years, it may be deemed inappropriate. It may also be seen as the “peaceful”&nbsp; visit that Turks claim, but I think there is something else behind it: a tit-for-tat for Kurdistan Region’s support for the creation of a Kurdish region in Syria, especially when Barzani admitted training Syrian Kurds in Kurdistan Region to send them home to “defend their areas”. Kurdish leaders also continued their support for all Kurdish groups in Syria even the one that Turkey accuses of having links with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel group that has been fighting the Turkish state for almost three decades.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Barzani’s late July remarks when he told Al Jazeera that the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/07/201272393251722498.html">Syrian Kurds were beingtrained in Kurdistan Region</a> so that they can go back to Syria and “fill any security vacuum” that might come forth in the wake of the fall of the Syrian regime, upset the Turks so much that immediately after that they threatened to use military force to intervene in Syria<a href="http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/4/319015/"> if a Kurdish region was established</a>where the Democratic Union of Kurdistan (PYD) – a Kurdish armed group allegedly affiliated with the PKK – had any control. The Prime Minister Recepy Teyyip Erdogan also appeared on TV saying Davutoglu will visit Kurdistan Region to “share Turkey’s sensitivities and determination on this issue” with local administration officials. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Prior to the visit, a senior Kurdish official from Barzani’s party said that <a href="http://www.todayszaman.com/news-288296-turkey-should-engage-not-push-away-pyd-kurdish-official-says.html">Turkeyshould not push away any Kurdish parties in Syria</a>, even the PYD.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Turkey has been viciously fighting PKK and is desperately trying to eliminate the group through military force. The creation of a Kurdish region in Syria is seen by Turkey as a potential threat to Turkey because it fears that the PKK will use the Kurdish region of Syria to attack Turkey. PKK is already using the Kurdish region of Iraq as a launch pad to attack Turkey and Kurdish leaders have made it clear that they will not fight alongside Turkey against the PKK despite their presence in the northern mountainous territories of Kurdistan on the Turkish border. Barzani once said that the blood of a Kurds should never be shed by another Kurd in response to Turkey’s pressures on Barzani to fight against the PKK.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Davutoglu’s Kirkuk visit shows the extent to which Turkey is ready to go to prevent the creation of a Kurdish region in Syria. On the surface, Turkish officials may say that they do not oppose the creation of a Kurdish region in Syria provided that it is not controlled by a group linked with the PKK. But in reality, they oppose a Kurdish region in Syria because that will no doubt encourage Turkey’s own Kurdish region in the southeast will be demanding the establishment of a similar region, not to mention that it might open a new front for Turkey to fight the PKK.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Davutoglu’s Kirkuk visit was a reminder for Barzani and Kurdish leaders in Iraq that “we can meddle in Kirkuk if you keep supporting the creation of a Kurdish region in Syria where even PYD can exist”, that Turkey will support the Turkmen in their claims of Kirkuk being a Turkmen city which the Kurdish leaders have been trying to incorporate into the Kurdistan Region since 2003 and which the Kurds fought over it for decades with Saddam Hussein.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">History shows that Turkey has the potential to intervene and divide the ethnic groups as in the case of Cyprus in 1974. Davutoglu spoke to the Turkmen community as if Turkey was going to establish a Turkmen region in Kirkuk. Turkey has considered Kirkuk a historically Ottoman and the <a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,425230,00.html">property of the Turkmenminority.</a> “You waited for us too long, but I promise you won’t wait for us that long in the future.” <a href="http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurds/5045.html">He told the Turkmen community</a> of the city stressing on Turkish support for the Turkmen.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">More importantly, Davutoglu implicitly said that Turkey recognizes Kirkuk as a Turkmen city and will act accordingly when it comes to disputes between the ethnic groups of the city. “Today we [Turkish authorities] decided to make Konya city in Turkey and Kirkuk sister cities. I am a Turkmen of Konya and for that reason I feel your pain very well... Wherever there is a Turkmen, we have felt responsible towards them and protected them and we will always do so” <a href="http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurds/5045.html">Davutoglu told the Turkmen rally</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Davutoglu chose a <i>Turkmen </i>city of Turkey instead of a Kurdish city or just any other Turkish city, to be a sister city of Kirkuk. Normally, when two cities are said to be sisters, they are such because they share something vital. In the particular case of Kirkuk and Konya, that shared characteristic, according to Davutoglu’s speech is the Turkmenness of Kirkuk and the Turkmenness of Konya.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/KupYR9qXGdU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com0http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2012/08/turkish-fms-kirkuk-visit-tit-for-tat_8120.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7986228182632715552.post-367181348639705052012-04-24T16:29:00.001+03:002012-04-25T20:49:50.474+03:00Attack on Sulaimaniyah donkey statue sparks outrage<div dir="ltr"><h2 class="title"> </h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ERBIL - An attack on the statue of a donkey in Sulaimaniyah, the second largest city in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, has set off outcry among artists and journalists who deemed it as an assault on freedom and the "terrorization of thought".</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><img align="right" alt="pay kar " height="249" id="1" src="http://static.aknews.com/images/cms-image-000106235.jpg" width="218" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The statue was unveiled earlier this month in central Sulaimaniyah city’s Nali Park - that has been named after&nbsp; famous Kurdish poet who wrote a famous poem about donkeys - by a political party in the region called the Donkeys’ Party.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The statue shows the head and shoulders of a donkey dressed in a suit, shirt and tie. It is a 1.8 by 1.1 meter bronze statue that took Zirak Mira, a Kurdish sculptor, seven months to create.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Donkeys’ Party leader Omar Klol had hoped during the unveiling ceremony on April 13 that the statue would help people better understand the four-legged animal and treat it with respect. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Klol believes that donkeys offered help to the Kurdish armed struggle against the former Iraqi governments in the second half of the twentieth century when Kurds were fighting for greater political rights. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He has on several occasions said that the donkey played a very important role in the Kurdish liberation movement and described the animal as the Kurdish fighter's “only friend” during the struggle for Kurdish rights. Donkeys were used to move fighters' weaponry and food supplies from the villages to their hideouts on the jagged mountains.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“I can't describe the way I feel today which is similar to the feeling I had on my wedding day,” Klol said during the ceremony.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Kurdish government, parliament and other governmental institutions failed to help our party establish the statue, but Mira was the only person who raised the donkey’s head high in central Sulaymaniyah.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But the statue lasted unharmed for only 10 days and was attacked by unknown people last night. There is damage to one of the donkey's eyes as well as its tie. The attack followed a verbal attack on the city of Sulaimaniyah on Facebook, stating that erecting such a statue was a foolish thing to do. Unknown groups also threatened to remove the statue.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But for creator of the statue Mira, the physical and verbal attacks on the statue and Sulaimaniyah city is a “terrorization of thought”.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"They [the attackers] have not stopped by this and have launched a verbal attack against Sulaimaniyah where the statue was placed, which shows that the Kurdish community has not developed in this respect yet.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Kurdistan Artists Syndicate (KAS) issued a statement following the attack.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“We condemn any attack or assault on the artistic works on any political, religious or social pretext." The syndicate also called on the court and the relevant parties to take legal steps against the perpetrators.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Also, a number of intellectuals, artists and journalists launched a campaign to support the donkey statue and criticize the attack. The campaign group described the attack on the statue as an attack on freedom and creativity in a statement circulated by the Kurdish media.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“After threats and insulting the artistic work of Mira, here the hands of the dark put their threat to action and distorted the statue,” the statement said. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“We condemn this attack and consider it as an attack on artistic freedom and creativity.”</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KurdishObserver/~4/FJjZo9m5-z8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Raber Y. Azizhttps://plus.google.com/108208271931397583743noreply@blogger.com2http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/2012/04/attack-on-sulaimaniyah-donkey-statue.html